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DORCHESTER DAY 



CELEBRATION OF THE 



Two Hundred and Seventy-Seventh 
Anniversary 



Settlement of Dorchester 



JUNE 8th, 1907 



IN'CI.UniNG ALSO 



A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ORIGIN OF DORCHESTER DAY 
AND THE THREE PRECEDING CELEBRATIONS 

By JAMES H. STARK 

VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE DORCHESTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY 




BOSTON 

MUNICIPAL PRINTING OFFICE 

1907 






CITY OF BOSTON. 



In Board of Aldermen, December 23, 1907. 
Ordered^ That a second edition, consisting of one thousand 
copies, of the proceedings of Dorchester Day, June 8, 1907, be 
printed, the expense of same to be charged to the appropria- 
tion for Printing Department; such documents to be distributed 
under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing. 

Passed. Sent down for concurrence. 
December 26, came up concurred. 
Approved by the Mayor January 2, 1908. 
A true copy. 

Attest : ^ J 

.John t. priest, 

Assistant City Clerh. 



% 



Gift 
The Society 

5 My '08 



CONTENTS 



OlJIGIN OF DOUCIIESTKR DaV ...... 

FIRST DORCHESTER DAY CELEBRATION. 
Opening Address by Richard C. Humphreys 
Oration uy James H. Stark ..... 



Page 
5 



13 

15 



SECOND DORCHESTER DAY CELEBRATION. 
Poem, "The 'Mary and -Iohn ' in Dorchester Bay," 
BY Hezekiah Bitterworth .... 

SAiLiN(i Regatta ....... 

Athletic Games ....... 



THIRD DORCHESTER DAY CELEBRATION 
Program ..... 
Roster of Parade 
Address by Richard C. Humphreys 
Oration by Josiah Quincy . 
Horse Races and Sailinc; Regatta 



24 
26 
27 



;52 

33 
35 
37 
50 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY CELEBRATION. 

Committees ......... 56 

Program of City Committee ..... 56 

Pro(;ram ok Dorchester Historical Society . . 58 

Replacing the Old Dorchester Milestone . . 58 

Address by Richard C. Humphreys .... 59 

Address by Gov. Curtis Guild, Jr. . . . . 61 

Address by Mayor Fitzgerald ..... 63 

Address by James H. Stark ..... 65 

Celebration at Savin Hill ..... 68 

Oration by Daniel Chauncey Brewer ... 70 

Address by Rev. W. H. Allbright .... 78 

Address by Rev. Eugene R. Shippen .... 82 

PoEiM, " Dorchester Pioneers " . . . . . 83 

Yacht Races ........ 85 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Water Sports ...... 

The Parade ...... 

Athletic Games ...... 

Historic Spots Located .... 

Fireworks Display ..... 

Banquet ....... 

Address by the President of the Dorchester 
TORiCAL Society ..... 

Address by Rev. Peter Ron an . 

Address by Guy A. Ham .... 



His- 



Page 
87 

88 
93 

95 
97 
99 

100 
103 

106 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



« Replacing the Old Dorchester Milestone 

v' Portrait of AVilliam H. Whitmore 

■I Birthplace of Edward Everett 

-^ Old Blake House ..... 

" Portrait of R. C. Humphreys 

^ Portrait of James H. Stark . 

V Encampment of New England Guards . 
/ Portrait of Josiah Quincy 

/ Last Indian Camp on Savin Hill . 

V City Committee ..... 
! Committee of the City Council 

Portrait of Curtis Guild, Jr. 
Portrait of John F. Fitzgerald . 
Gkavestones from the Old Burial Ground 
. Portrait of Eugene R. Shippen 

Yacht Race off Savin Hill . 
. First Burying Place in Dorchester, Tomb of 

Gov. William Stoughton 
"^ Committee of the Dorchester Historical 
Society ...... 



Frontispiece 
Faeiug page ;"> 
6 
8 
13 
15 
2'3 
37 
40 
55 
59 
61 
63 
70 
82 
85 

96 

108 




tifu^ 



FOUNDER OF THE DORCHESTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AND FIRST PRESIDENT 

OF SAME FOR MANY YEARS CITY REGISTRAR AND 

RECORD COMMISSIONER 



ORIGIN OF DORCHESTER DAY 



On April 6, 1891, William H. Wliitmore, City 
Registrar, and Mr. James H. Stark, both well-known 
antiquarians and historical students, obtained a special 
act of the Legislature incorporating the Dorchester 
Historical Society. 

This society succeeded the Dorchester Antiquarian 
and Historical Society, wliicli was organized on Janu- 
ary 27, 1848; but at the organizing of the new 
society its membership had been reduced to but three 
members, namely : Edmund J. Baker, President ; Henry 
G. Denny, Secretary ; and William B. Trask, Curator. 

The new society started with a membership of 
twenty-hve. Since then many of the best known 
and most influential men of the old town have 
become members. 

Among the results of the society's work may 1)e 
mentioned the observance of the 274th anniversary 
of the settlement of Dorchester and the inauguration 
of Dorchester Day, which is now a fixture, and under 
the auspices of the society the anniversary is observed 
yearly, and is practically a ''home coming" for the 
residents of old Dorchester that are scattered through- 
out the land. Business houses and private resi- 
dences are elaborately decorated. There are parades, 
addresses, regattas, ringing of bells, fireworks, etc. 



6 ORIGIN OF 

The principal purpose of the society is to collect, 
preserve and publish information concerning the 
ancient town of Dorchester. 

The activity and industry of its members since its 
incorporation have contributed much to the general 
interest in Colonial and Revolutionary annals, and 
many scenes of national historic importance before 
unheeded and almost unknown have become through 
research and publication familiar. 

Among the results of the society's work may be 
mentioned the location from ancient records of the 
site on which stood the first town meeting-house and 
the first public school. 

April 11, 1894, the society celebrated the 100th 
anniversary of the birth of Edward Everett, who was 
born in the old mansion on the corner of Boston 
and Pond streets, at the " Five Corners." A public 
meeting was held in Winthrop Hall, at which delega- 
tions from the Board of Aldermen and Common 
Council took part in the services. An eloquent oration 
was delivered by the Rev. James De Normandie, and 
an address hy Mr. James H. Stark, giving a history 
of the Edward Everett mansion, which prior to the 
Revolution was owned by Thomas Oliver, the last 
royal Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts. The 
meetings of the society were first held at the resi- 
dences of its members, and the one thing that its 
members stood in the most need of was a building 
in which it could hold its meetings and store its 
archives and historic treasures. The city purchased 
a lot of land to be used for greenhouse purposes on 



I 



DORCHESTER DAY. 7 

East Cottage street and Massachusetts avenue. On 
this lot was situated one of the oldest colonial houses 
in Dorchester, which was offered to the Historical 
Society if they would remove the same. Mr. John 
H. Blake and Dr. Clarence J. Blake, descendants 
of the settler who built the house, and other mem- 
bers of the family, very generously offered $1,000 
toward the expense of moving and restoring it. 
Another f 1,000 was subscribed by members and 
others. The city allowed the building to be moved 
upon the triangular piece of land at the junction of 
Pond street and the Parkway, at the " Five Corners " — 
now Edward Everett square — opposite the Edward 
Everett mansion. This land was given to the city 
a few years ago by the late Mr. Richardson, the 
owner of the Edward Everett house, and was near 
the site of the first meeting-house, town-house, and 
first free school. The city afterwards contributed 
$2,000 for grading and laying out the grounds sur- 
rounding the building. 

At a meeting of the society held in April, 1904, 
the Vice-President, Mr. James H. Stark, proposed 
that the society should celebrate the settlement of 
Dorchester by proper observances on the crest of 
Savin Plill, on the site where the first fort was 
erected, and where the first settlers located. Mr. 
Stark's object in this was to draw the attention of 
the public to this most beautiful and attractive his- 
toric spot, with the end in view that the city 
should purchase it for a park and hand down to pos- 
terity this lovely hilltop. At first it was difficult to 



8 ORIGIN OF DORCHESTER DAY. 

see how it could be accomplished, for the treasury 
was empty, all the funds of the society having been 
used in moving and fitting up the building. Mr. 
Stark argued that it would not only draw the atten- 
tion of the public to the necessity of preserving to 
posterity this historic spot, but it would advance the 
interests of the society, as it would bring it more 
prominently before the public, and if it proved a 
success " Dorchester Day " would become the annual 
''field day" of the society. It was finally voted 
that the society should celebrate the settlement of 
Dorchester hj a band concert and addresses, etc., on 
the crest of Savin Hill, on June 25, 1904, and that 
the same should be known as " Dorchester Day," and 
that Mr. James H. Stark be requested to raise the 
funds and pay the bills for same. Mr. Stark accepted 
the service, and collected $135, which proved suffi- 
cient to pay all the bills for tent, printing, and light 
refreshments, etc. The city furnished the Municipal 
Band, flags, etc., free. And thus was " Dorchester 
Day " inaugurated. The following account of the 
observances of the occasion is from the Boston 
Herald of June 26, 1904. 




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1 






THE FIRST DORCHESTER DAY 
CELEBRATION 

June 2^, 1904 



FIRST DORCHESTER DAY CELEBRATION 

June 25, 1904 



Lifted nearly one hundred and fifty feet above 
Dorchester bay, the craggy slopes and tree-covered 
heights of "Rocky Hill," "Old Hill," or "Savin 
Hill," as it has been variously styled, were yester- 
day the scene of commemorative exercises that seem 
destined to make a new place of historical pilgrim- 
age for the tourist whose steps are annually bent 
toward Massachusetts. The members of the Dor- 
chester Historical Society, having planned to turn 
this long-neglected spot into a park, wdiich shall at 
the same time commemorate the settlement of Dor- 
chester in 1630, and possess the character of a 
national monument, had enlisted the aid of several 
local societies, such as the Savin Hill Lnprovement 
Association, Gen. Rufus Putnam Chapter, D. R.^ 
Savin Hill Yacht Club, Harrison Square Association, 
Dorchester Lower Mills Improvement Association, 
Mattapan Improvement Association, Field and Forest 
Club, Dorchester Veteran Firemen's Association, 
Benjamin Stone, Jr., Post 68, G. A. R., and the 
United Im])rovement Association of Dorchester. 

Under invitation of these organizations some two 
hundred citizens of Dorchester gathered in a tent on 
the crest of Savin Hill, and there, alternated with 



12 CELEBRATION OF 

selections by the Boston Municipal Band, under Emil 
Mollenliauer, patriotic addresses were made on the 
significance of the day and the site, the speakers 
being Richard C. Humphreys, President of the Dor- 
chester Historical Society ; James H. Stark, who 
delivered the oration ; the Rev. Eugene R. Shippen of 
the First Church in Dorchester, who presided; the 
Rev. Peter Ronan and Representative Guy A. Ham. 
In calling the meeting to order, Richard C. Hum- 
phreys made the following address : 




PRESIDENT OF THE DORCHESTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



FIRST DORCHESTER DAY 



OPENING ADDRESS 

By President Richard C. Humphreys 



We are standing on historic groiuid, where stood 
the first fort in the early days of Dorchester, and at 
the foot of this hill all along the shore stood a line 
of fortifications which I well remember. Within rille 
range of this hill was built the first free school in 
the world, the first town meeting being held no far- 
ther off ; on yonder river, tlie Neponset, was built 
the first mill on this side of the ocean, and the first 
potatoes raised in New England were planted on 
what is now Savin Hill avenue. 

In the good old town of Dorchester Edward 
Everett was born and Daniel Webster lived. Time 
would fail me to tell of all the governors, generals 
and famous men who have lived within the limits 
of Dorchester. 

TO PRESERVE SAVIN HILL FOR ALL FUTURE TIME. 

The Dorchester Historical Society made a great 
effort, in which its former President, John J. May, 
of sainted memory, took an active part, to save this 
liill for all time by making it a park, and we wish 
to have you all take a greater interest in our society, 
to join it and help us make the people more fully 
realize what historic ground we have here at hand. 



14 CELEBRATION OF 

I have pleasure in introducing to you, as presiding 
officer of the day, the pastor of the First Church in 
Dorchester, which for more than 150 years was the 
only church in the town. 



The Rev. Eugene R. Shippen then made liis ad- 
dress as presiding officer. " Dorchester's golden age," 
said he, -'is in the past. In 1633 it was the great- 
est town in New England, Boston being but a sub- 
urb. It was within sight of this hill that the good 
ship " Mary and John " rode at anchor, bringing 
the men who came here to help found this great 
republic." 

The historic address of the occasion was then 
delivered by James H. Stark, Vice-President of the 
Dorchester Historical Society. 




FOUNDER OF DORCHESTER DAY AND OF THE DORCHESTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF SAME. 



FIRST DORCHKSTKR DAY. 15 

ORATION 

By James H. Stark 



Fellow citizens and members of the Dorchester 
Historical Society who have shown such an interest 
in preserving this historic hill and the landmarks of 
your ancient town, we have come here to the 
summit of " Old Hill " to-day to lay the offerings of 
cherished memories and honest pride upon altars 
which our fathers reared here in Dorchester in years 
that are past. Two hundred and seventy-four years 
have i)assed since the ship " Mary and John " arrived 
here from England with the tirst Dorchester settlers, 
composed of families from Devon, Dorset and Somer- 
setshire. And standing, as we do, upon a spot which 
was witness to some of their early struggles, and 
whose occupancy was among the early fruits of their 
triumph over the difficulties that surrounded them, 
the memory goes back instinctively to that train of 
events which was crowned by the planting of a col- 
ony of free, enlightened Englishmen on the shores of 
New England. 

Among them was a young man named Roger 
Clap, who informs us in his narrative that " many 
of these people were trading men, and at first 
designed Dorchester for a place of trade, and accord- 
ingly built a fort upon ye hill called Rock-hill, 
wherein were several pieces of ordnance, near ye 



16 CELEBRATION OF 

waterside ; but ye channel being poor and landing 
difficult, and Boston and Cliarlestown harbor being 
far more commodious, they desisted from their 
design and many of them removed afterwards to 
Boston and other places." Therefore, strange as it 
may appear, the level ground around this wild, 
rugged spot was selected and occupied by the first 
settlers a year before Boston was settled, and here 
they intended to establish the future New England 
metropolis, but were defeated in their design because 
"ye channel being poor and landing difficult," which 
defect, singular to say, was removed the ninth day of 
this month [laughter and applause], when for the 
first time since the settlement of Dorchester the 
channel is good and a landing can be made at 
low tide. 

Among the most notable of the early settlers of 
Rock Hill was Roger Ludlow. He was a brother- 
in-law of Governor Endicott, and in 1634 was chosen 
Deputy Governor. His home, which was probably 
the best in Dorchester at that time, was situated on 
the site of the Denny estate, at the foot of this hill. 
Winthrop informs us that " Mr. Ludlow, in digging 
the foundations of his home in Dorchester, found 
two pieces of French money ; one was coined in 
1596. They were in several places, and above a 
foot within firm ground." From this it would appear 
that the French were here trading with the Indians 
before the English came. 

At a meeting of the projectors of the colony, held 
in England, October 15, 1629, a plan for fortification 



FIRST DORCHESTER DAY. ]7 

was drawn up, by which it was agreed that the 
Massachusetts Company was to bear half the total 
cost for such work, the other half to be met by the 
settlers. In accordance with this order, the General 
Court ordered, in 1639, -'ye mounting of the great 
guns at Mr. Hawkins' on Rock-hill." The town for 
its part ordered " that Mr. Aderton and John 
Wiswall shall p'cure wheels to be made and car- 
riedge to mount the peeces that are at Mr. Hawkins' 
by the sea and cause them to be mounted." 

On the north side of the hill is an old house sup- 
posed to be that of John Eells, erected previous to 
1640. During the siege of Boston, 1775-6, it was 
used as barracks by the American troo})S, this being 
the extreme end of the Dorchester line, forming the 
right wing of the American army. During the war 
of 1812-14 earthworks were erected on the water 
front around the southerly and easterly part of the 
hill ; there is now but little left of them. The New 
England Guards encamped annually at Savin Hill 
for many years. The engraving on the programs 
is a copy of a painting in the Old State House made 
in 1819, and gives a very good view of the camp 
and hill. 

Since this little Gibraltar was dismantled its site 
has not appeared in history, but during all these 
years the many generations that have come and 
gone have used this beautiful spot for their picnic 
grounds. There are thousands now living in Boston 
and its vicinity who can recall with pleasure the 
many happy childhood days passed merrily at Savin 



18 CELEBRATION OF 

Hill. During this time the name of the hill has 
been changed three times. For the first 100 years 
it was known as " Rock Hill," the second 100 years 
as the "Old Hill," and 75 years ago it was named 
Savin Hill by Joseph Tattle, who established a 
summer hotel here at that time. Savin being the 
scientific name of the red cedar with which the hill 
was formerly covered. 

Edward Everett, the silver-tongned orator and 
statesman, in his Fourth of July oration in Dor- 
chester in 1855, referred to Savin Hill as follows: 
" Old Hill, as we called it in the days of my boy- 
hood, more than fifty years ago, has lost that vener- 
able name in the progress of refinement. ' Though it 
has become a half-century older, notwithstanding the 
tasteful villas which adorn its base, it exhibits sub- 
stantially the same grouping of cedars and the same 
magnificent rocks, and commands the same fine view 
of the harbor which it did before a single home was 
built within its precincts. Venerable trees that 
seemed to me in my childhood — I have been look- 
ing at them this morning — seem but little bigger 
now, though I trace the storms of fifty winters on 
some of their well-remembered branches." 

Edward Everett's description of Savin Hill, as it 
appeared to him a century ago, is equally applicable 
to the present time. When the question of public 
parks for the City of Boston was first discussed, a 
few years ago, and a commission appointed to select 
locations, they selected Savin Hill for Dorchester, 
as possessing in the greatest degree the natural phy- 



FIRST DOltCHESTEK DAY. J 9 

sical characteristics necessary for a park, and requir- 
ing the least expenditure for subsequent development, 
also for its accessibility to all classes of citizens for 
walking, riding and boating, or by means of car 
travel, and for its adaptability and economy. Since 
then the owners of the hill have very generously 
offered it to the city on the payment to them of an 
amount practically equal to the amount paid by 
them in taxes since they owned it. 

It is the hope and desire of every lover of what is 
historical and beautiful in nature that tliis ancient land- 
mark be preserved. Now is the time, for in a few 
years more it will be too late, when the hill will be 
shorn of its natural beauties and disfigured. Let 
us hand down to posterity this beautiful spot, and 
future generations will bless us for our forethought. 

DORCHESTER DAY SHOULD BE PLACED UPON HISTORIC 

CALENDAR. 

The Rev. Fatlier Ronan then urged on his audience 
the duty of co-operating with the Dorchester Historical 
Society in the work of making Dorchester Day an 
institution. "Let us," he said, "stand shoulder to 
shoulder until this occasion shall be placed upon the 
calendar of Boston's annual celebrations." 

The Hon. Guy A. Ham also dwelt npon the signifi- 
cance of Dorchester in the development of American 
institutions, and strongly urged the inculcation of 
more historic pride than was now shown in such 
sites as Savin Hill. " Monuments of war," said he, 
" have been erected throughout our country — let us 
also remember the monuments of peace. " 



20 CELEBRATION OF FIEST DORCHESTER DAY. 

The proceedings were brought to a close by the 
passing of resolutions presented by President Savage 
of the United Improvement Association, thanking 
the Dorchester Historical Society and the owners of 
the property for the opportunity to celebrate the 
274th anniversary of the first settlement of the town 
of Dorchester, and commending the labors of the 
Dorchester Historical Society and other historical 
associations in their efforts to preserve the records 
of the past and in publishing accurate accounts of 
the doings of the early settlers. 

Dorchester Day proved to be a great success in 
every respect. It was well received by the public, 
it brought the Dorchester Historical Society into 
prominence, and above all else it brought to a 
successful issue the object for which it was origi- 
nally started, viz., the preservation of the hill, and 
its acquirement by the city to be forever used 
as a public park. Among the visitors to the hill 
on that occasion was the Hon. John F. Fitzgerald 
and his family, who had recently removed to Dor- 
chester. This was his first visit to Savin Hill, and 
he was so struck with the beautiful surroundings 
and magnificent view from the hill that he then 
declared that, if he was ever elected Mayor of Bos- 
ton, he would favor the securing of the hill for a 
park, and in the fall, when he became a candidate 
for the mayoralty, he made similar promises, which 
he made good on July 26, 1907, when he signed 
the bill which made a park of Savin Hill and pre- 
served this beautiful spot, for which he will be 
blessed by posterity. 



THE SECOND DORCHESTER DAY 
CELEBRATION 

June io, 190^ 



24 CELEBRATION OF 

Leaving Edward Everett square, the line passed 
Upham's Corner to Meeting House Hill, where, on 
the common in front of the First Church, the Rev. 
Eugene R. Shippen delivered a brief historical address. 
The line then reformed and proceeded, via Bowdoin, 
Hancock and Pleasant streets, along Savin Hill 
avenue, to the crest of Savin Hill, where a large 
tent was erected on the site of the old fort " where 
ye great guns were mounted." Here the exercises of 
the day were held the same as on the previous year. 
The President, Richard C. Humphreys, delivered the 
address of welcome. He was followed by the Rev. 
James Eells, pastor of the First Church of Boston, 
whose ancestor, John Eells, was one of the first settlers 
on the northeast side of the hill. He was the seventh 
minister in an unbroken family line of ministers, a 
most unusual genealogical record. The oration of 
Mr. Eells was followed by addresses by Alderman 
William J. Hennessey, John F. Ayer, President of 
the Bay State Historical Club, and the Rev. Florence 
J. Halloran, St. Peter's Churcli, and a poem hy its 
author, Hezekiah Butterworth. 

THE "MARY AND JOHN" IN D()RCHP:STER BAY. 

Hezekiah Butterworth. 

It was Thanksgiving Day, and the sea-meadows lay 
In long russet curves around Dorchester bay ; 
The sturdy oak mansions had opened their halls, 
The chimneys had smoked on the Mystic and Charles. 
And Grandfather Minot looked out on the sea — 
The last of the Dorchester Pilgrims was he — 
And he thought of the days of the pioneers gone 
Who sailed on the deck of the " Mary and John." 



SECOND DORCHESTER DAY. 2^ 

The blue birds liad gone from the gentians bhie, 
The white clouds of gulls o'er the white waters flew. 
" Go, Thankful, and bring me the Bible, " he said ; 
And then how the old Hebrews murmured, he read. 
And Thankful, his grandchild, looked into his face 
And wondered that faltered the faith of God's race. 
And wondered if faltered those pioneers gone 
Who sailed on the deck of the " Mary and John." 

"Fifty times, Father Minot, you say you have seen 
The white islands change into islands of green ; 
Fifty times in the elms seen the oriole's wings. 
And heard the red woodpeckers number the springs. 
I love the strange tales of the Pilgrims of yore. 
And of those who first landed on Dorchester's shore." 
And she thought of the days of the pioneers gone. 
Did they falter who sailed on the " Mary and John " ? 

Then said the old man at the set of the sun, 
" The field blossoms long that has victory won ; 
Look out on Point Allerton's headlands of pine. 
And the oak-shaded beaches that Dorchester line. 
'Twas there, off the bay, on summer's first morn. 
That our anchor was dropped from the 'Mary and -lolui.' 
The white sea birds' wings in the sunset there glow. 
And cover the ledges like live banks of snow. 

"The western winds l)lew through the horizons of calm. 
And sweet o'er the waves rose young Maverick's psalm : 
There dropped the white sails, and the anchor was cast. 
And there we knelt down 'round the motionless mast. 
And our Thanksgiving made, and psalms followed prayer. 
And the birds sang with us on the spars in the air ! " 
And dreamed the old man of the pioneers gone 
Who sailed on the deck of the " IMary and John." 

" Hut, Grandfather, listen : The islands turned gray. 

And the north wind came down, and ice filled the Bay; 

Of food there was little ; the women lay low 

With fever and hunger ; men wandered through snow 

To buy from the Indian a Inishel of corn ; 

And returned not the sails of the ' INIary and John.' 

Ah ! no, never more to those pioneers gone 

Came the sea-shattered sails of the 'Mary and John.' 



26 CELEBRATION OF 

"The sad heart turns back to its birthplace in pain, 
And murmured the Hebrews for Egypt again. 
Did my mother, whose grave now the gentians enfold. 
E'er long for old England and Dorchester old ? 
And did you ever murmur, or those who are gone. 
Who sailed on the deck of the ' Mary and John ' ? 
Which were the more worthy, my Grandfather, say, 
The pilgrims of old, or of Dorchester bay? " 

"1 am glad that you asked me that question," he said. 
" I well know the faith of the pioneers dead. 
A true heart has no secrets, but open it lies. 
As the lips of the sea, and the smiles of the skies. 
No, they never looked back, those i)ioneers gone, 
They never looked back for the ' Mary and John.' 
In the days of the famine, the sickness, and cold. 
They never looked back to Dorchester old. 

" 'Tis prospects that make the heart happy, and they 
No golden calf worshipped on Dorchester bay. 
To dream of the new hope and not of the old 
Turns a measure of samp into banquets of gold. 
When your mother looked out over Dorchester sea, 
She dreamed of what life to hei' children might be. 
And so dreamed they all. No regrets sailed away 
When the ' Mary and John' left new Dorchester bay." 

" AVere you better than Aaron? " What now could he say 

Who well knew the Pilgrims of Dorchester bay ? 

The woods were all silent, the sea winds were stayed. 

When the lights of Nejwnset shone out in the shade. 

" No Dorchester Pilgrim," he said, with a smile, 

" In the wilderness dreamed of the palm-shaded Nile ! " 

Tlien in silence they dreamed of the pioneers gone 

Who never looked back for the " Mary and John." 

This was followed by a song, " The New America," 
by Brenton H. MacCurdy. 

SAILING REGATTA. 

At three o'clock a sailing regatta was held in Dor- 
chester bay under the management of Alderman 



SECOND DORCHESTER DAY. 2i 

Clark. The wind and weather was suitable and the 
regatta was pronounced a great success. 

ATHLETIC GAMES. 

At 3.30 the athletic meet was held at the Chris- 
topher Gibson Field. The events were 100-yard dash, 
220-yard dash, 880-yard run, one-mile run, three-mile 
run, high jump and relay races. There was also 
amateur baseball games held on Franklin Field, in 
which four teams competed. 

TORCHLIGHT AND BONFIRE. 

At eight o'clock there was a torchlight parade, held 
under the auspices of the Dorchester High School 
baseball team, to celebrate their winning the Inter- 
scholastic League games. A bonfire was held in a 
field near the High School. The Boston Letter 
Carriers' Band gave a concert at the High School, 
and the Benjamin Stone Band also gave one at eight 
o'clock in Andrew square. 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 

The second celebration of Dorchester Day Avas 
pronounced an unqualihed success. The committee 
of arrangements consisted of Richard C. Humphreys, 
Chairman ; James H. Stark, Thomas F. Temple, 
the Rev. Eugene R. Shippen, William Hoag, Dr. M. 0. 
Daly, Frank W. Merrick, William Kelley, Walter D. 
Loring and C. Hodgdon. The Dorchester Historical 
Society and the Dorchester Improvement Societies, 
consisting of the Savin Hill, Harvard, Ashmont, 
Harrison Square, Mattapan, and other societies assisted 
in the celebration. 



I 



THE THIRD DORCHESTER DAY 
CELEBRATION 

June 9, 1906 



THIRD DORCHESTER DAY CELEBRATION 

June 9, 1906 



The 276th anniversary of the settlement of Dor- 
chester by the English began at noon with the 
booming of cannon on the United States cruisers 
" Cleveland " and " Tacoma," Avhich had been ordered 
to Dorchester bay, and the ringing of bells ; the cele- 
bration continued unceasingly, concluding with a 
display of fireworks on Franklin Field, personally 
conducted by Mayor John F. Fitzgerald. 

Never before was Dorchester in such a gala attire. 
The houses and other buildings along the route of 
the parade were one mass of flags and bunting. 
Considering that Dorchester Day was instituted only- 
three years ago, the sliowing was magnificent, and 
made the citizens feel confident that this day of 
celebration had come to stay. The arrangements 
were in the hands of the Dorchester Historical Soci- 
ety and of the local members of the city govern- 
ment, headed by Alderman Tilton S. Bell, and they, 
with the assistance of Mayor John F. Fitzgerald, 
were responsible for the success of the day. 



32 CELEBRATION OF 



PROGRAM. 

RiCHAUD C. Humphreys, President of the Dorchester 
Historical Society, presided. 



Music, Cornet Solo . . . Karl Forsell. 

Song, " The Sword of Bunker Hill" (adapted). Covert. 

Brenton Haliburton MacCurdy, 
Tenor, 

Oration Hon. Josiah Quincy, Ex- Mayor 

of Boston. 

Music Post 68, G. A. P., Band. 

Address Hon. John F. Fitzgerald, Mayor 

of Boston. 

Song, " Hail, thou Day of Days," Wenger. 

Mr. MacCurdy. 

Music Post (38, G. A. R., Band. 

America, 

My country, 'tis of thee. 
Sweet land of liberty, — 

Of thee I sing : 
Land where my fathers died. 
Land of the pilgrim's pride. 
From ev'ry mountain side 

Let freedom ring ! 



THIRD DORCHESTER DAY. 33 

ROSTER OF THE PARADE. 

The parade was one of the principal e^'ent,s of tlie 
day, starting shortly after 2.30 o'clock. It formed 
on Talbot and Welles avenues and moved over the 
following route : Talbot avenue to Pealjody square, 
to Ashmont street, to Ocean street, to Welles avenue, 
to Washington street, to Park street, to Greenbrier 
street, to Bowdoin street, to Quincy street, to Colum- 
bia road, to Stoughton street, to Pleasant street, to 
Savin Hill avenue, to Grampian way. 

The roster of the parade was : 

Chief Marshal, Charles T. Harding. 
Chief of Staff, Lieutenant Dudley M. Praj'. 
Chief Aid, Captain F. A. Walker. 
(Quartermaster, Lieutenant George A. Wardwell. 
Coniniissary, Lieutenant C. L. Carter. 
Surgeon, Lieutenant C. S. Capelle. 
Aids — Sergeant Aaron Wolfson, A. and H. A. Co. ; Sergeant J. 
J. Feeley, A. and II. A. Co. ; Sergeant Fred M. Wood, A. and 
H. A. Co.; Lieutenant H. C. Cormerais, Fifth Infantry; 
Lieutenant H. C. AVaterman, Fifth Infantr}^ ; Lieutenant F. 
M. Whiting, Fifth Infantry; Lieutenant J. J. Dwyer, Nintli 
Infantry; Captain J. J. Cully, Nintli Infantiy ; Captain C. 
Harrison, staff First Brigade; Lieutenant C. A. Pettingill, 
Fifth Infantry; Lieutenant C. I. Petersen, Sixth Infantry; 
Lieutenant I). H. Fogg, C. C. A. ; Lieutenant W. C. Wilkins, 
S. V. R. ; Lieutenant-Colonel .1. R. Smith, 15. N, and ]\I. 
Veterans; Commander Louis Epple, L. S. AV. A".; Com- 
mander-in-Chief AValter Penney, S. A^. ; Lieutenant F. H. 
Turnljull, Naval Brigade; Commander F. S. Chubbuck ; 
Colonel AV. H. H. Garry; Sergeant-Major F. R. Googins, 
First Battalion Cavalry; Hospital Sergeant C. F. Drury ; 
Orderly C. A. Kemp. 

Tenth Artillery Band. 

Forty-sixth Company U. S. Coast Artillery, 

Captain C. R. Lloyd. 



/! 



34 CELEBRATION OF 

Seventy-sixth Company U. S. Coast Artillery, 

Captain J. F. Howell. 

United States Marine Band. 

Battalion United States Marines. 

United States Naval Band. 

Battalion United States Blue Jackets, 

Lieutenant-Commander E. W. Davis, U. S. N. 

Signal Corps, M. V. M., 

Captain AV. C. Stevens. 

A. L. Sixth Infantry, M. V. M., 

Captain George W. Braxton. 

Company H, Fifth Infantry, M. V. M., 

Captain George T. Lattimer. 

Seventh Company, C. C. A. M. V. M., 

Lieutenant G. M. King. 

Naval Brigade Battalion Band. 

Company A, Naval Brigade, 

Lieutenant D. M. Goodrich. 

Company B, Naval Bi-igade, 

Lieutenant C. A. Lewis. 
Company E, Naval Brigade, 

Lieutenant J. B. Blood. 

Camp 30, Sons of Veterans, 

Commander H. C. Thomas. 

British Na\ al and Military Veterans, 

Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Smith. 

Letter Carriers' Band. 

Dorchester Letter Carriers, 

T. N. Dunican, Chief Marshal. 

Dorchester High School Cadets, Four Companies. 

Dudley School Cadets, 

E. W. O'Dowd, Commandant. 

Sons of Union, 

W. T. Beals, Commandant. 

Mystic Side Drum Corps. 

Boys' Brigade, 

W. S. Harvey, Commandant. 

Kitchamankin Tribe, I. O. R. M. 

Carriages. 



ll 



THIRD DORCHESTER DAY. 35 



ADDRESS 



By Richard C. Humphreys 

President of the Dorchester Historical Society 



Following the parade, the historical exercises took 
place on the crest of Savin Hill, under the auspices of 
the Dorchester Historical Society. 

In opening the historical exercises President Hum- 
phreys said : 

Why have we invited you to gather here this after- 
noon to celebrate Dorchester Day ? It is because this 
is a historic spot, and we feel we can more easily inspire 
in your hearts the sentiment of patriotism — yes, the 
sentiment of patriotism. Do you realize that the larger 
part of the joys and pleasures of life come to us through 
sentiment ? It was sentiment that inspired the hearts 
of our Revolutionary fathers to resist the encroachment 
of England. It was sentiment that filled the patriotic 
hearts of those Ijnive souls who died for us in the War 
of the Rebellion. It is only sentiment, you say, the 
desire to preserve this historic spot. It is only senti- 
ment that causes so much to be said, and well said, 
about saving the Old State House, which has greater 
historic associations than any other building in the 
country, except Independence Hall in Philadelphia. 
It was sentiment that inspired the eloquent and soul- 
stirrino- words uttered ]jy the Memorial Day orator 



36 CELEBRATION OP 

who spoke to the crowd of eager listeners as they 
gathered about the Robert G. Shaw memorial monu- 
ment. 

We wish to inspire in the hearts of the rising gen- 
eration a sentiment that will manifest itself in a love 
for historic spots and historic buildings, that tliey 
may as they grow older do their part to preserve 
Faneuil Hall — the Cradle of Liberty — the Old South 
Meeting House, the Old State House, and this spot 
where stood the first fort built after the landing of 
our Pilgrim Fathers. 

We hope that Dorchester Day with its display of 
flags and its patriotic utterances will kindle in our 
young people a sentiment of patriotism that will 
make these Stars and Stripes mean more tlian ever 
before — 

And the star-spangled banner, 
long may it wave 
O'er the land of the free 
And the home of the l)rave. 



Following Mr. Humphreys' address there was a 
cornet solo by Karl Forsell, and Brenton H. MacCurdy 
sang " The Sword of Bunker Hill." President Hum- 
phreys then introduced the Hon. Josiah Quincy as the 
orator. He introduced him as a direct descendant 
of Josiah Quincy of Revolutionary fame. 



THIRD DOKCHESTEK DAY. 



ORATION 

By the Hon. Josiah Quincy 



Three centuries ago this ground was part of the 
virgin wilderness. Its only inhabitants were the wild 
Algonquin tribes, whose melodious place-names, like 
Neponset, Squantum and Mattapan, still cling to 
prominent features of the landscape, and whose blood 
has trickled down in the veins of a few old families 
dwelling in the townships south of the Blue Hills. 

It was a period of deep unrest in England. Below 
the surface, in remote hamlets and counties far from 
the capital, the waters of discontent were seething, 
and prescient minds easily foresaw the gathering of 
the waves of revolution. Under the pressure of 
political and religious tyranny the land lost many 
of her sturdiest children, whose migration, under 
these circumstances, [)artook of the character of a 
flight. The settlers of New England were half 
colonists, half refugees. They loved their mother 
country, l)ut preferred the perils of the ocean and 
the horrors of the wilderness to the fate threatened 
by her rulers to those of their way of thinking. 

In 1G29 a company, projected by the Rev. John 
White, of Dorchester, obtained a charter from King 
Charles I. granting them the rights of settlement in 
the country along the Massachusetts shore between 



38 CELEBRATION OF 

a point three miles south of the Charles river and 
three miles north of the Merrimac. White was a 
Nonconformist minister, of forceful character and 
deep convictions. He had rendered substantial aid 
to the Plymouth Pilgrims, and had already promoted 
two expeditions to the region of Cape Ann. Under 
his guidance the Dorchester immigrants, before set- 
ting out, organized a congregation, with the Rev. Mr. 
Maverick as senior pastor and the Rev. Mr. Warham as 
his assistant. Nothing, indeed, is more striking about 
the Dorchester colony than the religious spirit which 
characterized the pioneers and their descendants for 
many generations. They carried their English Bible 
as the ancient Hebrews bore with them the Ark of 
the Covenant. And, however clearly we of to-day 
may realize their limitations, we cannot refuse our 
sympathy to the principle of liljerty of conscience 
heroically proclaimed by these English exiles. Their 
dogma may not attract us, but we may all derive 
inspiration from their matchless faith. 

The fleet of the new company consisted of four- 
teen vessels, and the passengers were men of good 
social position, most of them artisans, tradesmen and 
farmers, with not a few mariners from the channel 
ports and a sprinkling of clergymen and professional 
men. Their numbers are estimated at fifteen hundred. 
In most cases their wives and children accompanied 
them, and all the circumstances of the voyage pointed 
to a permanent separation from the mother country 
and the fomiding of a powerful colony, the Dor- 
chester party, or " Western men," as they were 



TIIIKD r3()KCIIESTER DAY. 39 

called, seemed to have travelled apart from the 
others in their own ship, the " Mary and John," 
which was the first vessel to reach Massachusetts 
l)ay. Tliey made Nantasket point about the 1st of 
June, 1630, and were put ashore by the captain, 
" notwithstanding," as one of their number wrote, 
" that they held that he was engaged to bring them 
to the Charles river." Fortunately there were sev- 
eral planters in the neighborhood of Boston at this 
time, and from one of these the leaders of the party 
procured a boat, in which they explored the harbor. 
They visited Mishawum, or Charlestown, and rowed 
up the river as far as Watertown, where they met a 
band of three hundred Indians. But the landlocked 
waters of Dorchester bay and the rich pastures at 
the Neck had attracted them from the first. They 
noted the falls of the Neponset, promising power for 
their mills, and this rockv hill, which mio;ht serve as 
the acropolis of their little settlement in case of an 
attack by the savages. These advantages seemed to 
them to outweigh those of the u})per harbor and the 
three-hilled peninsula, and on June 6, 1630, a site 
was formally selected for the new town. This was 
a week before the "Arbella," with John Winthrop 
and his party, reached Salem and proceeded to Charles- 
town, so that the settlement of this residential suburb 
preceded that of .the city. In September the name 
of Dorchester was given to the place. The land was 
parcelled out in an orderly way, and rude homes 
began to arise between Savin Hill and the " Five 
Corners." Like the Plymouth Pilgrims, the colonists 



40 ('ELEBRATION OF 

suffered severely in the first years of their settlement. 
[Shell-fish was at times a staple article of food, and 
the log cabins afforded little shelter from the blasts 
of the harsh New England winter. But these trials 
soon passed away, and for a decade or more Dor- 
chester was a successful rival of Boston. A meeting- 
house had been built in 1631 at what is now the 
junction of Cottage and Pleasant streets. In 1633 a 
second shipload of eighty-five passengers arrived. A 
grist mill, said to be the first in New England, was 
erected by Col. Israel Stoughton, and the sea-faring 
men of the colony took a leading part in the cod- 
fisheries, besides making voyages to Maine for val- 
uable furs. 

At this stage of its development Dorchester, which 
then extended southward almost to the Rhode Island 
line, surpassed the other towns of the colony in 
wealth, and paid the highest taxes. But the unequal 
competition with Boston could have only one result. 

The advantages of the deep upper harbor soon 
asserted themselves. While Boston advanced rapidly 
in commerce and manufactures, Dorchester remained 
a comely village, or cluster of villages, enjoying a 
certain distinction as the home of prosperous farmers, 
and particularly admired for its orchards, gardens 
and cornfields. In 1654 there were one hundred and 
forty dwellings in the town. At the time of the 
Revolution it had about fifteen hundred inhabitants. 
A century later the number had increased to twelve 
thousand, while South Boston, a part of the original 
Dorchester, contained a population of nearly forty 



42 CELEBRATION OF 

imposing. I have spoken of the beauty of the village 
and its garden-like appearance. It is no accident 
that an interest in horticulture should have been one 
of the conspicuous traits of the Dorchester people 
down to the present time. Neither is it so extraor- 
dinary as perhaps it seems that in this little town, 
of retired aspect and invitingly tranquil atmosphere, 
the seeds of some of our greatest institutions sliould 
have been sown. It is not the first time that epoch- 
making ideas have come up to Jerusalem from Galilee. 

It was in Dorchester, on October 8, 16o3, that 
government by town meeting, which has so power- 
fully influenced the character of our people, the 
structure of our institutions, and the course of history 
itself, was first established in New England. On 
that day the colonists agreed to hold regular weekly 
meetings for the management of their affairs, and soon 
afterwards a board of twelve selectmen, chosen by 
popular vote, was elected. 

Popular government implies an educated citizenship. 
By a mutual necessity, a kind of instinctive logic, 
tlie establishment of free schools followed the accept- 
ance of democratic principles among the colonists, 
and in this departure the Dorchester pioneers again 
took the lead. It was within the precincts of this 
town, in 1639, that the first free public school, sup- 
ported by direct tax, in America was founded. Later 
generations of Dorchester townsfolk showed themselves 
no less devoted than their predecessors to the cause 
of general education. Many bequests were left by 
prosperous townsmen to the public schools, two of 



THIRD UOKCIIESTEK DAY. 43 

which, at least — the Christopher Gibson Fund and 
the Stoiighton Fnnd — are still used for the benefit 
of the school children of Dorchester. Up to 1792, 
thirty residents of the town had graduated from 
Harvard College. The founding of your High 
School in 1852, when the population was barely 
eight thousand, reflects this inherited or traditional 
passion for intellectual and spiritual improvement. 

Nor did the relations of the early settlers with 
the aborigines belie their expressions of Christian 
piety. It must be indeed gratifying to those estimable 
families among you who bear the names of the 
Dorchester Puritans, or claim descent from them, to 
be under no painful necessity of extenuating their 
conduct toward the weaker race that preceded them 
on the soil. In 1G57 the town gave 6,000 acres in 
Ponkapoag to John Eliot, the missionary, for the 
prosecution of his noble labors. 

In the main, life seems to have flow^ed on gently 
here, an occasional bounty on blackbirds, striped 
squirrels, or rattlesnakes showing the everyday 
proldems which vexed the good husbandmen. Man- 
ufactures never flourished among them ; although 
fulling, snuff and paper mills were built by the river, 
and the chocolate industry, which has since acquired 
so wide a celebrity, was established as early as 
1765. 

The eminent names connected with Dorchester, 
such as Roger Williams, Increase Mather, Edward 
Everett, William Stoughton (commemorated in street, 
township, and university hall), are those of clergy- 



44 CELEBRATION OF 

men, scholars, and public men rather than of suc- 
cessful merchants. 

Though somewhat aside from the main current 
of trade — a coast town, but not a port — Dorchester 
played a conspicuous part in every great movement 
that affected the colonies. It sent its quota of 
soldiers to the Indian wars, and no town in America 
was more resolute in its attitude of resistance toward 
the oppressive acts which culminated in the War of 
Independence. Its representatives in the General 
Court were repeatedly instructed to oppose the 
enactments of the British Parliament, and the reso- 
lution of May 23, 1776, that "if the Continental 
Congress should think it best to declare independ- 
ency with Great Britain, we will support them with 
our lives and fortunes," anticipates the very ring of 
the great Declaration of July 4. The story of the 
fortifications thrown up on the Neck and at Dor- 
chester Heights in March, 1776, makes the town 
for once the scene of great historical events and the 
theatre of critical military operations. In the fol- 
lowing year eighty of its townsmen were still at the 
front, and the records of the War of Emancipation 
show that the descendants of these patriots had not 
forgotten their sense of duty in times of national 
peril. One hundred Dorchester men were killed 
during the Rebellion, and the 1,342 soldiers fur- 
nished were considerably more than the quota of so 
modest a population. 

In several of these developments it appears to me 
we may trace a certain continuity, a conservation, 



THIRD DORCHESTER DAY. 45 

due in part to tradition and filial })ride, and in part, 
no doubt, to the physical character of the district, 
which inevitaldy affects its inhabitants. More faith- 
fully than many towns you have preserved the 
monuments of your past. The Blake house, built in 
1650, must be one of the oldest dwelling-houses in 
the country. The burying-ground, in which the 
tombs of ten generations stand side Ijy side, still 
touches the passer-by with its mute appeal. Several 
of your local names are brief historical documents, 
epitomizing the story of the places that bear them. 
Such are Meeting House Hill, on which the second 
house of worship was erected in 1670 ; Milton, or 
Mill Town, wdiere Israel Stoughton built his corn 
mill, the first of its kind ; and Cow Pasture, a part 
of the great meadow where a stout fence, running 
across the Neck, effectively pemied the cattle in the 
peninsula and guarded them from the manifold 
dangers of the encircling forest. The name of Old 
Harbor street in South Boston reminds us of the 
defeated hopes of the original settlers, and explains 
in three words why Boston and not Dorchester has 
become the capital of New England. 

You have other memorials which it is grateful to 
visit, other episodes and characters pleasant to recall, 
on this birthday of Dorchester town. The original 
charter granted to the liev. John White is, I believe, 
still preserved in the Secretary of State's office at the 
State House, and I suggest that if every pupil in the 
Dorchester schools should visit and read that docu- 
ment before graduation it would conduce to rever- 



46 CELEBRATION OF 

ence and patriotism, and that profound sense of the 
continuity of life upon which the greatest people of 
the east, the Japanese, have founded their incompar- 
able discipline. 

And what a vivid index to local antiquities are the 
great highways of the district. With changed names, 
modern residences, and ever shifting occupants, they 
still follow the paths traced by the founders, along 
the lines of natural advantage, and something of the 
atmosphere of olden days seems to hover about them 
still. Pleasant street and Savin Hill avenue were the 
first roads laid out, running through the heart of the 
original village. Adams street still winds to the ford 
in the river and thence follows the shore line to 
Plymouth. Dudley street is still the main artery of 
travel to lloxbury and Boston, though the vehicle of 
the traveller no longer passes over a slim, sandy neck 
only thirty paces wide at its point of greatest con- 
traction. 

No part of the district is richer in historic reminis- 
cence than the portion near Savin Hill. The colonists 
had agreed, before setting out, to build their village 
compactly, and in accordance with this policy — a 
wise one in view of the danger from the Indians — 
the land in this vicinity was divided into four, six 
and eight-acre lots. A rude fort was Imilt on the 
hill, whose steep sides made it a miniature Gibraltar, 
and even the meeting-house was strongly palisaded 
and stocked with military stores. In these provisions 
for safety we can trace a vivid picture of the perils 
to which the early planters were exposed. Doubtless 



THIRD DORCHESTER DAY. 47 

our Dorcliester families at first went to their place 
of worship armed and prepared for grave emer- 
gencies. But the natives with whom thej came in 
contact proved susceptible to the kindness shown 
them, and the raids of the fiercer tribes seldom 
threatened the well guarded settlements near the 
capital. The farmers were soon enabled to disperse 
over tlie district without fear, and built homes con- 
veniently near their farms. These were in some 
instances of considera))le area. An investment of 
fifty pounds in the original company entitled the 
shareholders to 200 acres, which would probably be 
worth upwards of $5,000,000 to-day. This increase 
measures the value which has been added to the land 
by the skill and industry of ten generations of Eng- 
lish-speaking people. We have only to ascend any 
one of your numerous elevations and look out over 
the panorama of pleasant homes spreading out before 
us to feel that our dispossession of the red men is 
justified by its results. 

The changes symbolized by your growth in poi)u- 
lation and by the increase in property values are 
indeed great, yet they have not destroyed the essen- 
tial character of the district. Dorchester, always the 
home of well-to-do middle class people, is still the 
most favorably situated residential section of Boston. 
The ocean on the east, with its dreamy jirospect, its 
invigorating winds, the river and mountains on the 
south, the superb country park and boulevard on the 
west, the teeming city within an easy half hour's ride 
to the north, offer a variety of advantages which no 



48 CELEBRATION OF 

other section can dispute with }'ou. Nature has 
framed one part of Boston in ideal surroundings for 
a district of comfortable homes, and for once man has 
wrought in harmony with her promptings. 

It was then a happy inspiration which led to the 
setting aside each year of a day in which this 
uniquely favored suburb may review its memorable 
record. We may well spare a brief interval, out of 
the haste and struggle of our lives, for contemplation 
of those two centuries and a half, between settlement 
and annexation, when growth in Dorchester was 
gradual and changes came almost imperceptibly. In 
such imaginative reviews we acquire a sense of sta- 
bility, as when we tread the curious pavement in the 
vestibule of your High School and learn that it was 
laid down by Roman masons in old Dorchester in 
England nearly two thousand years ago. The dig- 
nity, the responsibility, of our own lives seem en- 
hanced when we realize of what an estate we are the 
heirs. We feel ourselves elements in an ancient 
structure which has endured so long that we may 
safely predict it will not soon pass away. 

I congratulate you, fellow citizens and gentlemen of 
the Historical Society, upon the revival and more 
and more general observance of this pleasant anni- 
versary. With pageantry and pastime, public cere- 
monial and private hospitality, you honor fittingly 
the virtues of the nation builders of old Dorchester. 
Every resident of your district should take part in 
the exercises of this day. Whoever has absorbed its 
true spirit will have escaped from the transient inter- 



TIIIKD DORCHESTER DAY. 49 

ests of the hour and regarded for a while those vaster 
issues and movements which sketch their shadows 
across the centuries. I believe he will return to his 
usual calling a better American for this interruption 
of his labors. Indeed, I seem to foresee, growing out 
of these celebrations, the erection in due time of 
some enduring; monument. Perhaps a tower will 
arise on the crest of this rock — fit pedestal for some 
Rhine baron's castle — affording views of the whole 
harbor and the adjacent land, and typifying by its 
elevation the loftiness of the historical outlook which 
this day opens to our vision. The hill, at least, 
should be kept sacred, both for its rugged grandeur, 
which is intrinsic and imperishable, and for the asso- 
ciations which cluster about it from the earliest days. 

After a selection by Post 68, G. A. R., Band, 
Mayor John F. Fitzgerald was introduced. The Mayor 
responded briefly, and told how much })leasure it was 
to him to have seen the celebration such a success. 

When the Mayor had finished, Mr. MacCurdy sang 
" Hail, thou Day of Days," and the exercises were 
brought to a close by the singing of "America" and 
the passing of the following resolution, which was 
unanimously adopted by upward of one thousand 
persons assembled on the top of the hill : 

Resolved^ That we express what we believe to be the sentiment 
of many citizens, not only of Dorchester, but of the whole City of 
Boston, when we declare that the city should accept the offer 
made by the Worthington heirs, to dispose of this property at a 
stipulated price for use as a public park. 

We are the more willing to make this declaration in view of 
the fact that the contemplated purchase has met with the approval 



50 



CELEBRATION OF 



of three of the mayors of Boston and of members of the Park 
Commission. Let it he consummated, and tlie voice of approval 
will be heard from all people who know the value of this property 
to the City of Boston and the citizens of Doi Chester. 

The residents this year entered into the spirit of 
the occasion with more enthusiasm than heretofore, 
and as a result the decorations were far more elab- 
orate. 

This, in a measure, was a tribute to Mayor Fitz- 
gerald, who lived in the district. He had taken an 
active part in making the day a notable one, and it 
was mainly because of the interest that he had shown 
that a liberal appropriation of $2,000 was made for 
the celebration, which was expended in the following 
manner : 



Historical exercises 










$150 00 


Yacht races . 










200 00 


Athletic games 










200 00 


Fireworks 










500 00 


Baseball 










100 00 


Water sports 










50 00 


Dorchester Driving Club 










150 00 


Parade 










300 00 


" Contingent " expenses 










350 00 


Total . 


. $2,000 00 



There was little going on in the district during the 
morning hours, but by noon the streets began to be 
crowded with those desirous of witnessing the many 
events scheduled for the afternoon and evening. 

The official programme began at one o'clock. At 
that hour the first of the eleven races on the Frank- 
lin Field Speedway between horses owned by the mem- 
bers of the Dorchester Gentlemen's Driving Club took 



I 
I 



THIRD DORCHESTER DAY. 51 

place. In the eleven events there were thirty entries, 
and all of the races were for silver cups donated by 
the city. At the same hour the water sports began 
off the public pier on Freeport street. These inchided 
forty and eighty-yard swimming races for boys and 
girls, a diving competition, old clothes race, obstacle 
race, tub race and a plunge for distance. An exhi- 
bition of the various strokes used in swimminu- were 
given by Professor George de Cost. 

At one o'clock the yacht races began at Com- 
mercial Point and Savin Hill, with the Boston, Dor- 
chester and Savin Hill Yacht Clubs as the competitors. 
There were seven classes, in all of which were numer- 
ous entries, and tliere were three prizes in each class. 
This event was in charge of a committee comprising 
Alderman Bell, Louis M. Clark, Oliver F. Davenport, 
Joseph T. Preston, F. W. Merrick, Loring Sears, 
Allan M. Davis and Hjalmar Lundberg. The judges 
were well-known yachtsmen of the district. 

At three o'clock there was a baseball game on the 
Dunbar-avenue grounds between the Dorchester and 
Soraerville High School teams, and there was also a 
baseball game on Franklin Field and the Neponset 
playground. 

In the evening there were band concerts at Frank- 
lin Field and at the Neponset playground. The official 
celebration concluded with a grand display of fire- 
works on Franklin Field under the direct supervision 
of Mayor Fitzgerald. 

Practically all of the clubs and other organizations, 
with which the district abounds, kept open house dur- 
ing the afternoon and evening. 



THE FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY 
CELEBRATION 

June 8, 1907 




CITY COMMITTEE, 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY CELEBRATION 

June 8, 1907 



In the preceding chapters a brief account has been 
given of the origin of Dorchester Day and the pro- 
ceedings of the three previous celebrations. 

It was decided that the 277th anniversary should 
excel any celebration that had ever taken place in 
Dorchester since its settlement. This was largely 
due to tlie assistance of JNIayor Fitzgerald, who had 
recently removed to Dorchester. It was mainly 
because of the interest he had shown in this matter 
that a liberal appropriation of $3,500 was made for 
the celebration. This year the celebration by the 
Dorchester Historical Society was independent of the 
other features of the program. The exercises as 
prepared by the Society were as follows : 

Dorchester Historical Society. 

TWO HUNDRED AND SKVENTY-SEVENTII ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
SETTLEMENT OF DORCHESTER. 

The officers of the Society announce that the celebration of 
Dorchester Day will lie observed in the following manner on 
Saturday, June 8 : 

At two o'clock, in front of the '^ Old Blake House," the " Old 
Dorchester Milestone" will be formally placed, it having been 
removed from its ancient resting-i)lace on Hancock street, where 
it was erected by the Colonial Governor 173 years ago. Mr. 
James H. Stark will deliver an address. After the address the 
Society will march to Savin Hill, accompanied by a band of music. 



56 cp:lebkation of 

At three o'clock the exercises in the tent at Savin Hill will be 
of an interesting character. One hnndred children from the pub- 
lic schools in the vicinity will sing national airs. Five prizes will 
be awarded for the best composition on "Old Dorchester" to 
members of the ninth-grade pupils of the grammar schools. In 
addition to this feature there will be speeches and music liy the 
band. Admission tickets will be given to the members and their 
friends. 

At 6.30 o'clock a reception will be held in the Library of the 
Municipal Building on Columl)ia road. 

At seven o'clock there will be a supper served in Gymnasium 
Hall, followed by speaking and music. 

EICHARD C. HUMPHREYS, President. 
JOHN A. FOWLE, Secretary. 

COMMITTEES. 

The General Committee in charge of the events 
were James H. Stark, Chairman ; the Rev. W. H. 
Allbright, P. J. McDonald, the Rev. E. R. Shippen, 
Miss Nellie J. Breed, Richard C. Humphreys. 

Milestone Committee. — John A. Fowle, R. F. 
Delano, James H. Stark. 

PROGRAM OF CITY COMMITTEE. 

A most interesting program was prepared by 
the joint committee of the City Council, of which 
Alderman Tilton S. Bell was tlie chairman. It 
was one that gave pleasure to young and old alike, 
and was as follows : 

During the entire day there will be all kinds of sports. In the 
morning there will ))e water sports off Savin Hill Beach, and at 
the Ward 16 ward-room bath-house. In the afternoon there 
will be yacht racing in Dorchester bay, athletic games on the 
Town Field, and baseball games for prizes on Franklin Field and 
throughout the district. 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 57 

The Dorchester Gentlemen's Driving Chib will also have horse 
races on the Franklin Field Speedway. The club, and in fact 
practically all of the many clubs of the district, will keep open 
house during the day. 

In the evening there will be band concerts on Franklin Field 
and in P^dward Fverett square, followed by fireworks. 

The General Committee in charge of the events comprises 
Aldermen Tilton S. Bell, John E. Baldwin, George H. Battis, 
William H. Woods and Frederick A. Finigan, Councilmen 
AVilliam C. Clark, John L. Costello, Charles A. Clark, 
John D. McGivern, William S. Bramhall, William B. Willcutt, 
James II. Kelly, Edward M. Green and Charles T. 
Harding. 

The sub-committees are : 

Yacht Races. — Alderman Bell. 

Parade. — Councilmen Harding, Willcutt and Kelly. 

Athletic Games. — Councilmen Bramhall, W. C. Clark and 
McGivern. 

Water A>or;s. — Councilmen Costello, C. A. Clark and 
Alderman Woods. 

. Dorchester Gentlemen's Drivitig (?/?^/>. — Councilman Green. 

The day's celebration was ushered in at six o'clock 
by the booming of cannon and the ringing of l)ells, 
and did not end until midnight. The residents as a 
whole took more interest in the occasion than here- 
tofore, and as a result the district, especially in the 
Ashmont and Dorchester Centre sections, was adow 
with colors, the decorations on some of the club- 
honses and private residences being especially pretty. 

Better weather could not have been asked for, the 
cool weather being in marked contrast to the heat of 
the year before, when the troops found it difficult to 
continue over the entire route of parade. Governor 
Guild and members of his staff lent brilliancy to 
the occasion by participating in the " Milestone " 



58 CELEBRATION OF 

exercises at the Old Blake House in Edward Everett 
square, and riding in the procession. 

The exercises of the day were commenced by the 
Dorchester Historical Society, in accordance with the 
following program, as issued by the society : 

PROGRAM OF THE DORCHESTER 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



Exercises at Blake House, at 1.45 P.M. 

(Owned and occupied })y the Dorchester Historical Society, Edward Everett square.) 

A¥elcome by Richard C. HiMrHREYS, President. 
Address by His Excellency Curtis Glild, Governor of Massa- 
chusetts. 
Address by His Honor John F. Fitzgerald, Mayor of Boston. 
Replacing of the Old Dorchester Milestone, erected in 1734. 
Address on Old Milestones, by James H. Stark, Vice-President. 

Invited guests will proceed to Savin Hill in carriages and barges, 
where historical exercises will be held in the tent on the crest of the 
hill, on the site of the first fort. 

Program of Exercises at Savin Hill. 

Music. 

Opening Address by Richard C. Humphreys, President of the 

Dorchester Historical Society. 
Singing by One Hundred School Children. 
Oration by D. Chauncey Brewer, Esq. 
Address by Rev. AVilliam H. Allbright, D.D. 
Address by Rev. Eugene R. Shippen. 
Music. 

The exercises at the old Blake House, attendant 
on the replacing of the old Dorchester Milestone, 
began at 1.45. In opening the exercises President 
Richard C. Humphreys said : 




COMMITTEE OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 



FOURTH DOKCIIKSTEIi DAY. 59 



ADDRESS 

By Richard C. Humphreys, 

President of the Dorchester Historical Society 



We have gathered here this afternoon to carry 
out one of the objects for which the Dorchester 
Historical Society was organized — for it was organ- 
ized to preserve this Milestone and other landmarks 
that were in danger of being lost. Standing under 
the shadow of the Blake House, which is more 
than two hundred and fifty years old, and was 
saved by our society, close to the spot where stood 
the liouse in which Lieutenant-C4overnor Oliver lived 
and where Edward Everett was born, it is not 
strange that sentiments of patriotism arise in our 
hearts and urge us to go on with our good work of 
saving all these things that pertain to old Dor- 
chester; things that will help the rising generation 
to more fully appreciate what this dear old town 
has done for them. 

Let us not forget that Washington marched along 
yonder road on his way to Dorchester Heights 
and that the first settlement of Dorchester was in 
this immediate vicinity. Think what changes have 
taken place about here! When I was a boy I used 
to skate on Newhall's pond where we now stand, 
and on Andrew's pond, opposite, separated from the 



60 CELEBRATION OF 

former only by Pond street as it runs to-day. Before 
1776, a cow had wandered into the swamp about 
where the William E. Russell school-house now stands 
and stuck fast in the mud, so that the wolves from 
the forest had come down before morning and 
devoured her. 

In my day there was a dense wood from Mag- 
nolia street to Blue Hill avenue, where we hunted 
for wild rabbits. A part of the swamp opposite 
was filled in by Lieutenant-Governor Oliver's slaves, 
who carried thither on their heads boxes or baskets 
of gravel from the higher land around what is now 
Edward Everett square. 

We would express our gratitude to Mr. Parkman 
Dexter, to Mr. Fowle and Mr. Delano, to whom we 
are indebted for saving this Milestone. 

We deem it fitting to emphasize the importance of 
saving these landmarks by inviting our Vice-President, 
James H. Stark, to say a few words to us on 
" Milestones and Landmarks." 

To you, our Chief Magistrate, allow me to express 
the heartfelt pleasure of the people of Dorchester for 
the honor conferred upon them by your presence to- 
day. All honor to our Governor, who has the heart 
and mind to conceive, the understanding to direct 
and the hand to execute. 

To his Honor our Mayor we give a cordial 
greeting — a man of ceaseless energy, a,n eloquent 
orator and a citizen of Dorchester. The old proverb 
says, " Poets are born, but orators are made." He 
is a born orator. 



(i. 




GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS, 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 61 

ADDRESS 

By Gov. Curtis Guild, Jr. 



Governor Guild, the chief executive, as he took his 
position upon tlie steps of the famous house, was 
accorded three cheers and given the Chautauqua 
salute. The Governor, together with Mayor Fitz- 
gerald, Congressman Joseph F. O'Connell, Senator 
Leavitt and others, had previously assisted in reset- 
ting the old Dorchester Milestone, which had been 
removed from Hancock street, where it had stood for 
a number of years, to its new resting-groimd. Each 
with mortar and trowel cemented a stone about the 
base of the relic. 

During: the course of his remarks the Governor 
said that it gave him great pleasure to Ije present 
upon the noteworthy occasion and to extend his 
congratulations for the preservation of the memories 
and monuments to the distinguished predecessors of 
old Dorchester. He said that it was a pleasure for 
him to assist in restoring the old Milestone to its 
conditions of ancient days that it might ever remind 
us of the struggles of our fathers. 

He took issue with some who declared that the 
seal of the Commonwealth represented war, claiming 
that the Indian upon the seal was a hunter and not 
a warrior ; that the words spoken by the Indian 



62 CELEBRATION OF 

were, " Come over and join with us," at the time 
when the fathers of the nation left their native 
shore to set up for themselves a free government in 
the new world. He said that the hand which is 
extended upon the seal means simply that it is 
hostile to tyrants and only draws the sword against 
those who oppose law, order and peace. 




,T,Callahaii.Ba5.l 




FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 63 



ADDRESS 

By Mayor John F, Fitzgerald 



I am very glad indeed to be present to-day at 
these exercises, to bring to you the greetings of the 
City of Boston, and to all who have striven for the 
perpetuation of her glorious history her warmest ex- 
pressions of gratitude. That the people of Dorchester 
should take this op})ortunity of setting up the old 
Milestone, a silent reminder of the days of old and 
the achievements of those who have gone before us, 
is most gratifying. This year, perhaps more than 
any other in the history of our city, w^ill })rove a 
source of historical inspiration because of the number 
of landmarks that will be erected by the City of 
Boston. 

One of the chief advantages to Ije derived from 
the Old Home Week celebration will be the dedi- 
cation in different parts of the city of tablets and 
other memorials commemorating historic sites and 
historic places. During the present year the Governor 
and the Mayor united in a request to the Legislature 
for authority to expend the sum of $15,000 for the 
preservation of the Old State House, and for the pur- 
pose of restoring the building as far as possible to 
its original appearance. The authority has been 
granted, and the work will be started this year, to 



64 CELEBRATION OF 

the great satisfaction of all lovers of Boston, who 
revere the Old State House, the seat of the Provincial 
Government. 

The history of Boston and its historic sites will 
always be preserved and honored as long as associ- 
ations of the character of the Dorchester Historical 
Society exist, and the traditions of the early settlers 
who sacrificed so much that we might receive the 
great advantages which we have will never be for- 
gotten by a grateful people. I am proud, indeed, to 
be a resident of a district whose past is filled with 
the achievements of patriotic and honorable men. 
Coming from a home near the site of the Old North 
Church, where Paul Revere hung his lanterns, to live 
among you, many of whose ancestors descended from 
those who came here in the " Mary and John " two 
hundred and seventy-seven years ago, I am to-day, as 
chief executive of the City of Boston, more proud of 
one thing than any other, and that is, that historic 
sites, brave deeds, patriotic devotion and love of 
country have not been confined to any section, but 
have been found in every nook and corner of the 
city which now embraces the old town of Dorchester. 



Following the Mayor's remarks. President Hum- 
phreys called on Vice-President James H. Stark to 
speak on "Milestones and Landmarks." Mr. Stark 
said : 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 65 

ADDRESS 

By James H. Stark 



Ladies and Gentlemen of the Dorcliester Historical 
Society : 
The occasion of our meeting to-day on this his- 
toric spot is tu reinstate one of Dorchester's old mile- 
stones. It was originally placed on what is now 
Hancock street, during the administration of Gov- 
ernor Belcher in 1734. This road was the first main 
thoroughfare in Massachusetts, for it connected 
Plymouth Colony with that of Massachusetts. It led 
directly past Governor Belcher's heautiful residence 
in Milton, and every time the Governor went to 
Boston he passed this Milestone. It was passed also 
on that eventful night, March 4, 1776, by Washing- 
ton and his troops, when they took possession of 
Dorchester Heights. Three hundred teams loaded 
with white birch fagots with which to erect forts 
on the frozen ground silently passed this Milestone 
on their way from Captain Holman's farm in the 
upper part of the town — the place selected by 
Washington himself — to the heights which com- 
manded the town of Boston. 

Here the forts were constructed that led to the 
evacuation of Boston. A little more than a year 
before one of Boston's most famous sous left forever 



66 CELEBRATION OF 

his beautiful mansion on the crest of Milton Hill, 
and passed this Milestone in his carriage, which the 
following year was confiscated and appropriated to 
the use of Washington. Governor Hutchinson passed 
the Milestone for the last time, proceeding to what 
is now South Boston point. He was rowed to the 
Castle, the last bit of his beloved Massachusetts 
earth ever to receive his footfall. From here he 
embarked in the ship " Minerva," his vast possessions 
confiscated, fleeing from the wrath of his fellow 
townsmen. He in a few years died a broken- 
hearted exile from his native land. 

These are a few of the events witnessed by this 
old Milestone, which this society has rescued from 
the fate of many that have gone before it. The 
attention of the proper authorities should be called 
to the preservation of these historic landmarks. It 
should be the duty of the superintendent of streets, 
and a penalty imposed for their injury or removal 
by any person. A few years ago the most noted 
Milestone in the vicinity of Boston was rescued from 
destruction — the Parting Stone erected in 1744 by 
Paul Dudley near the Norfolk House, at the corner 
of Washington and Centre streets and Eliot square, 
Roxbury. This old stone undoubtedly pointed the 
way to what was once considered the termination of 
civilization. A gentleman driving in from Brookline 
a few years ago missed this well-remembered land- 
mark. Leaving his carriage, he searched in a heap 
of rubbish and found the old stone. Men wdth tip- 
carts were taking away the dirt and stones, prepar- 



FOURTH DOKCH ESTER DAY. 67 

ing to erect a new Iniildiiig. He paid a man a 
dollar to sit on the stone and to see that no one 
touched it till he could get back from City Hall, 
where the Mayor at once gave orders to have the 
stone replaced. That was all that saved the famous 
Parting Stone from destruction. 

Milestones are of very ancient origin. "Mile" is 
derived from the Roman '' milliare," which contained 
a thousand steps of five Roman feet each, the pace 
or step being the length of the step made hy the 
foot. The Roman mile is 1,G17 yards, which is 
modified in England and the Ignited States to 1,760 
yards. This measurement was adopted in England 
in the thirty-fifth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign. 



At tlie conclusion of Mr. Stark's address the party 
entered barges and carriages and were driven to 
Savin Hill. 



68 



CELEBRATION OF 



CELEBRATION AT SAVIN HILL 



On arriving on the crest of Savin Hill, where 
formerly stood the first fort erected in that vicinity, 
there was a selection by the band, after which 
President Humphreys called the gathering to order, 
saying : 

" Again we have invited you to this memorable 
spot to celebrate Dorchester Day. We congratulate 
you all that our Mayor and others in authority have 
assured lis that there is a good prospect of saving 
this beautiful plateaLi with its historic interest for 
a public park. We wish to make Dorchester an 
example to surrounding towms to save their historic 
spots, their milestones and landmarks. We wish to 
cultivate the historic spirit in the rising generation 
and to make our young people realize that Governor 
Winthrop, the Mathers, Roger Clap and other early 
settlers of Dorchester represented the great historic 
forces that sowed seeds of Puritanism in this good 
old town which spread all along the shores of 
Massachusetts bay, and that Dorchester was the very 
centre of many of the most noted scenes in the 
beginning of New England. We hope the time will 
come when the " Dorchester spirit " will be synony- 
mous with patriotism and a reverence for historic 
places, when it will be no lunger necessary for us to 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 09 

worry over the danger of the destruction of the Old 
South Meeting House, the Old State House and 
other historic buildings. If the John Hancock House 
was standing to-day it would not be in danger of 
l)eing torn down, such lias been the growth of this 
spirit which we are trying to cultivate. 

"The placing of the tessellated pavement in the 
vestibule of the Dorchester High School at the 
Talbot avenue entrance carries us back well nio-h 
two thousand years. This pavement, which was 
walked upon by Julius Caesar's legions, if not by the 
ruler himself, is to-day trodden upon by hundreds of 
the boys and girls of our Dorchester High School, 
and if they are thoughtful they can receive an 
inspiration that will aid them in their study of 
ancient history." 



Next on the program was the singing of national 
airs by one hundred school children. 



70 CELEBRATION OF 



ORATION 

By Daniel Chauncey Brewer 



The most famous of the living officers of the 
Civil War, Major-General Howard, has recently said 
that the principles of our government were founded 
upon the family, the church, the town meeting and 
the public school. 

This being so, it is fortunate, in a time when our 
fathers' ideals are obscured by involved modern con- 
ditions, that we can come back for inspiration to 
scenes that are full of suggestion. Here, in the 
beginning of our national history, the family rang 
true and the church (I speak of congregations of men 
worshipping God without regard to polity or creed) was 
sublime. Here the town meeting and the public 
school first crystallized into form ; and gathered here 
to-day we naturally select for loving review the story 
of Dorchester's heroic or golden age. 

That classic period rightly commences with the 
sailing of the " Mary and John " from Plymouth, Eng- 
land, in 1630, with the first consignment of the 
Massachusetts colony. 

That the little vessel of four hundred tons, no 
larger than a Gloucester fishing vessel, was seventy 
days on her way, is generally known. The suffering 
on board no one pretends to imagine. Whatever 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 71 

horror l^efell them, the one hundred and forty-five 
valiant souls that formed the colonizing party were 
undivided ; there was a brave and united church, and 
brave and united families in which the tender women 
and the children deserve even greater credit for for- 
titude than do the men. 

On the oOth of May they were off Nantasket, 
where the skipper anchored (unheeding every pro- 
test), on the ground that he was at the mouth of 
the Charles river, the place to which his cargo was 
consigned. How the pioneers reached Dorchester is 
now immaterial. There were explorations made by 
pinnace, and sage conferences, which resulted finally 
in the choice of a home. 

Near us, at the Town Meeting square, they raised 
their first blockhouse, which also served as church 
and school, and, running south from this rallying 
spot, they hewed their first lane (now known as 
Pleasant street) out of the forest. 

Alontr this road, referred to later as Settlers' 
street, and in the immediate vicinity, possibly along 
the path now called Savin Hill avenue, which led 
to "Rock Hill" (where we are now gathered), on 
which a colony fortress was soon to frown, the first 
houses were budded, none of them more tlian a half 
mile from the blockhouse, for better protection, and 
each surrounded with a half acre of yard or garden. 

Such was the settlement. Shortly after the initial 
step was taken. Cottage street was laid out along its 
present lines, to be later extended to Roxbury ; and 
the path to the marshes, where, as in other New 



72 CELEBRATION OF 

England communities, the cattle were pastured, 
became a road. It is now Pond street. 

These accomplishments, together with the dedica- 
tion of the old graveyard on Stoughton and Boston 
streets, with which many generations of their de- 
scendants have been familiar, and the setting aside 
of the level plain which still borders Pleasant street, 
and which was immediately adjacent to their meet- 
ing-house, for a training field, mark the close of 
the first period of the settlement life. 

Such were the bare outlines of the stage on which 
the founders of Dorchester played their part. 

To secure the accessories, to understand the people, 
you must get a glimpse of the England that nour- 
ished and the New England that welcomed them. 

Let us bridge time and the seas to the home and 
the reign of Queen Bess, and more particularly let 
us make our way to the ports which fringe the 
southwestern countries. 

Now we understand the spirit which exalted our 
ancestry. Here live and move the people who are 
to make England great and our democracy possible. 
Every town and hamlet has, or has had, in the past, 
at least one representative who helped Admiral 
Howard repel the great Armada, or who sailed with 
Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins and other brave captains 
to the new lands for trading and the fisheries. 

As a consequence, the love of liberty which char- 
acterizes these adventurous spirits who have known 
freedom from restraint characterizes also the towns 
that they inhabit. A grain of leaven has leavened 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 73 

the whole lump, and it is as natural to he hrave, 
out-spoken, broad-minded in the southwest of England, 
at the period of which we speak, as it w\as for an 
Athenian in the time of Pericles to be cultivated. 

To this peo})le, thrilled with the new thought tliat 
is arousing Great Britain, has come the acts of 
uniformity, dictating the method of worship for 
Catholic and Protestant alike. 

Do yon wonder that high-minded men and women, 
of such a mould as has been indicated, dared to pro- 
test against such dictation, and preferred to suffer 
what amounted to severance from home and kindred 
for conscience sake? 

Further, do you not get in the light of this review 
the meaning of Governor Stoughton's words, spoken 
about 1G7(>, of the Dorchester pioneers whom he had 
previously known, " They were wheat garnered out 
of all England." 

Whatever our thought, the causes and conditions 
given filled the first vessel that Governor Winthrop 
sent to the shores of Boston harbor with serious- 
faced people. 

Returning now to this side of the Atlantic, imagine 
the ship's company as it takes possession of these 
lands so familiar to us. Both sexes are soljerly 
garbed. The men wear hats bell-crowned and formal, 
but perfectly adapted to the belted doublets and 
short breeches which seemed fashioned for people of 
a melancholy mood ; while pelobeers (straps hung 
with wooden cartridares) are caught about the 
shoulder of each, and a gun of curious pattern is 



74 CELEBRATION OF 

either carried or lies conveniently at hand. The 
women are modestly gowned with white kerchief 
and cap. 

Both men and women are sagacions, courageous 
and determined. Among them are many of good 
family and fortune. Some of the men have been 
schooled at the English universities in a day when 
learning is rare, and others have achieved reputation 
as soldiers in the continental wars. Unobtrusive in 
dress and bearing, jeered at by the frivolous as dis- 
senters and purists, they are, from our standpoint, 
as distinguished a group as ever disembarked from 
an English ship. 

To a people less heroic the new world's wilderness 
would surely have proved more than depressing. 
Let their scouting parties pierce ever so far inland 
and climb the loftiest hills, there was nothing to the 
west but forest pressing upon forest. 

There was a storm-swept ocean before them, coursed 
by pirates and Spaniards. There was an ocean of 
trees behind, in whose shadows lurked mysterious 
savages and dreadful beasts. 

To realize something of the natural awe which 
must have enfolded them as they moved along the 
trails that their axes blazed, we have only to refer 
to an ancient chronicle which recites: "To the north 
of Boston there is often heard a horrid roaring 
which is not unlike that of lions and demons." 

This reference introduces us to the unseen world, 
^vhicli was very real to that generation, and which 
closed round about the people of Dorchester with 



KOKKTII DORCHESTER DAY. 75 

chilling effect. Did the wind roar and whistle in 
the tree tops or around the corners of their rudely 
built two-room shelters — who knew whether the 
very spirits of darkness were abroad or not? Did 
a. twig catch the cloak of the returning yeoman as 
he threaded his way home from his outlying farm 
through dense thickets — it might be a witch or a 
demon ! 

Amid such surroundings, the clearing of the wood- 
land and the tillage of the ground must have pre- 
sented sufficient difficulties to absorb the infant 
colony's attention. Nevertheless these exceptional 
men found time also for such an ordering of their 
affairs as signified much for i)osterity. We find in 
the old town records these entries : 

''Monday, Octol)er 8, 1633. Imprimis. It is or- 
dered that for the general good and well ordering 
of the affairs of tlie plantation, there sliall ))e every 
Monday before the court by 8 o'clock P.M. and 
presently by the beating of the drum, a general 
meeting of the inhabitants of the plantation at the 
meeting-house, then to settle and set down such 
orders as may tend to the general good as aforesaid, 
and every man to be bound therebv without train- 
saying or resistance." 

This was notable legislation, and it was followed 
May 20, 1G31), by a hardly less remarkable ordi- 
nance, viz. : Tlie adoption of a scheme which, 
depriving the settlers of the income of Thompson's 
Island, owned by the town, and which might prop- 
erly have been used to meet urgent expenses, and 



76 CELEBRATION OF 

devoting the same to the support of a free school, 
taxed every inhabitant in the interest of education. 

Mr. President, the learned of all ages have extolled 
the democratic form of government as ideal, permit- 
ting such modifications as appear in our republic 
when necessity requires, but have also noted that 
such a government can not exist without virtue and 
education. 

The men of the " Mary and John " were not 
content to theorize. They first established local 
government as we know it, in which every citizen 
has a voice (it was quickly copied by Boston and 
Cambridge and the neighboring towns), and they 
buttressed it by virtue and education. 

From these beginnings, more directly than from 
the compact in the "Mayflower" or the Jamestown 
precedent, were evolved the civic institutions which 
have made the United States great, prosperous and 
a pattern for all peoples. 

The lives these devoted colonists lived, and the 
ordinances they framed, guaranteed for them good 
government and personal liberty. If we of this 
generation are to enjoy the same privileges, we, too, 
must be virtuous as a people and maintain the same 
institutions. 

The peril is 'Mest we forget," that through autoc- 
racy or dictatorial leagues we endanger liberty, or 
that by license we forfeit equitable government. 

How shall we prevent this ? I know of no better 
way in which this community can aid than by seek- 
ing to perpetuate the memory of the Dorchester 



FOURTH DOKCII ESTER DAY. 77 

company by raising a monument which shall record 
their accomplishments for humanity. 

Such a memorial should be as notable as the artist 
and the architect can make it, that with its lesson it 
may compel the attention not only of residents of 
Boston, but of the multitudes of our fellow country- 
men from every corner of the land who annually 
visit this city. The municipality would honor itself 
by such a project; the State, which takes its name 
from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, might with pro- 
priety lend its aid ; and the descendants of these men, 
now a mighty multitude, many of whom have 
amassed great wealth, would perform a filial and 
praiseworthy duty Ijy joining in such an enterprise. 

At Plymouth, there stands a splendid statue in 
recognition of the virtues uf the Pilgrim Fathers. 

At Jamestown, the fleets of the world are met to 
applaud the act of the founders of Virginia. 

Let us now have a suitable monument to tell the 
story of the foundation of the town meeting and 
the public school. 



The Pvev. W. H. Allbright was the next speaker. 
He spoke on the "Enjoyment of History." 



CELEBRATION OF 

ADDRESS 

By the Rev. W. H. Allbright 



Mr. President and Friends of Dorchester : 

I liave here a manuscript on Dorchester history, 
but I will not use it. Instead, I propose to address 
myself to these pupils of our public schools, whose 
bright, eager faces are the inspiration of this occa- 
sion. Their presence here indicates an interest in 
this Dorchester Day celebration, especially in this 
historical and educational part of the program. 
Some, no doubt, will prefer the pageant and parade ; 
others will be glad to get their feet under tiie 
tables this evening and enjoy the prandial and post- 
prandial feast. Many of us hope to be there. But, 
for the present, these exercises command us. 

I am specially glad to participate in them for 
several reasons. 

First, because I was born and lived for twenty 
years in the land whence the Pilgrims and Puritans 
came. I have only one grudge against them. It is 
that they were two hundred years ahead of me. It 
was not fair. They ought to have waited ; I should 
surely have been one of them, though my name and 
achievement might not have added any special lustre 
to their memorable exploit. 

Then, secondly, I am glad to participate in this 
observance because fifty years ago the church which 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 79 

T have the honor to jserve was planted on tlie soil 
which their feet first trod. Right there, next to tlu; 
Athenauim building, stood Pilgrim Church for nearly 
a quarter of a century. To be sure, we are not 
mentioned in the history of good old Dorchester ; 
but what matters, we have made ourselves known 
without the aid of the historian. Some cliurches 
need factitious and outside helps ; we have made 
something of a record without nuicli advertising. 

Then, thirdly, I am glad to be identified with the 
progressive life of our district. I have lived here 
longer than in any other place. In England, I li\'ed 
in town and village. Here I have lived full seven- 
teen years, so long that I am the oldest pastor, in 
point of service, in this part of our city. Mr. Shippen 
is not young in years, or knowledge, Init I recall two 
of his predecessors in the historic Meeting House Hill 
pulpit. It is Ijecoming in us all, as citizens of this 
})art of Boston, to cherish a just })ride in its traditions 
and achievements ; its institutions and its homes ; its 
})eople and their material and moral welfare. 

Speaking of our history, 1 may remind you that 
there are four things essential to a true interpreta- 
tion and enjoyment of history : 

] . Knowledge. To enjoy history we must he 
informed. Our pleasure is in })roportion to our 
acquaintance with the men and movements of our 
land and age. Here it cannot be said " that igno- 
rance is bliss." 

Let me encourage you scholars of our schools to 
the fond pursuit of historical knowledge. Do not 



80 CELEBRATION OF 

say, give me fiction; let me be lulled to rest with a 
novel. All novel reading is not to be discouraged, 
but there is so much that needs to l)e known of a 
past to which we are all debtors, of the men and 
women who cleared for us a track and made the 
way of our feet all glorious. I beg you to read 
history — the history of your own country — with 
avidity and relish. You have no claim to social recog- 
nition, and you will not get it, if you prefer to remain 
uncultivated and uninformed as to the great epochs 
and events of your country's history. 

2. The next essential to enjoyment of history is 
truth. 

It is so easy for any and all of us to be narrow- 
minded — to be partial and prejudiced in our views 
of men and movements. What we want is a pur- 
pose to be true to the facts, even though they cut 
like the knife of a surgeon into the sensitive and 
sore places. 

If our schisms are more to us than the truth, 
then we are a bigoted and blighted nation. Give us 
truth at all cost ! This should be our imperative. 
This will enable us to be just to one another and 
honorable to those who made the way for our 
coming. 

3. I mention imagination as a prerequisite to the 
enjoyment of history. Imagination is that which 
gives color and life to the literature of the past. 
By it we can rehabilitate the scenes and surround- 
ings of the past, reanimate and reclothe the^ people 
who once trod these hills and vales. I seemed to 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 81 

see them in their quaint dress and dwellings as our 
friend, Mr. Brewer, was si)eaking. They lived again 
before me in very llesh and blood. Imagination 
lends enchantment to history; it affords color and 
vivacity. It is worth cultivating. You can clip the 
wings of an eagle, and prevent his soaring too high, 
but if he has no wings you cannot aid him in his 
flight toward the sun. 

Then, finally, I mention appreciation. This is 
necessary if we would get any good out of history. 
Some persons are everlastingly dinging at the foibles 
and faults of their forebears. God pity them ! 
Would that they could see themselves as others see 
them. 

It is all too common for newspapers and poli- 
ticians to sneer at our Pilgrim and Puritan ancestors. 
If they knew how nuich tliey advertise their own 
limitations in so doing, they would desist. What 
S]jlendid eulogies have been written on Puritan and 
Pilgrim character and achievement. Who, then, are 
these cheap statesmen that dare to defy and defame 
the verdict of history ! Appreciation is a rare faculty. 
It can be acquired. Let us all covet it. It will 
enable us to see more of good in eacli other, and 
to be sure that all the good of this world is ours if 
only we will appropriate, appreciate and enjoy it. 



The Rev. Eugene R. Shippen, pastor of the First 
Parish Church, Meeting House Hill, was the last 
speaker of the afternoon. 



82 CELEBRATION OF 



ADDRESS 

By the rev. Eugene R. Shippen 



The Rev. Mr. Shippen spoke on "Dorchester Poetry." 
Emphasizing the second word on the Dorchester seal, 
" Literis," Mr. Shippen read specimens of poetry 
written in Dorchester in the seventeenth, eighteenth, 
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The first ex- 
ample was taken from the " Bay Psalm Book," pub- 
lished in 1639, in the preparation of wdiich the Rev. 
Richard Mather had an important part. Except for 
the rhymes, the liymn read had no element of 
poetry, being most wretched stuff from a literary 
point of view, yet valuable as reflecting the taste of 
the day. The Dorchester settlers w^ere evidently men 
of common sense, not of uncommon sense or imag- 
ination. It is difficult to account for their literary 
crudity, however, when we remember that Milton's 
" L' Allegro," " Comus " and " T^ycidas " had all been 
written within the first ten years after the landing 
of the Dorchester settlers. 

The eighteenth century selection was a specimen 
of tombstone poetry, grandiloquent ej)itaphs being 
characteristic of the times. The next century Ijrought 
with it genuine culture and a much higher literary 
standard. An ode written by Miss Eliza T. Clapp for 




PASTOR OF FIRST PARISH CHURCH OF DORCHESTER. 



FOURTH DOKCIIKSTER DAY. 83 

the 2-30tli anniversary of the First Parisli was read, 
one of its noble verses being as follows : 

But guard us, O thou living Lord, 

If, lost our silken lines among, 
We miss the high, heroic chord 

That through their manly accents rung. 

This verse gave occasion to Mr. Shippen to dwell 
npon the need of the times, the '^high, heroic chord" 
of independence, social and political, without which 
all our boasted progress would amount to nothing. 

In closing, the speaker read from the original 
raanuscri})t lines written for Dorchester Day by Mrs. 
William H. Allbright, wife of the popular minister 
of Pilgrim Church. 

DORCHESTER'S PIONEERS. 

Bv Mary E. Alliuught. 

Out from the storms of the sea, fog clinging to sail and spar, 
A small, quaint craft, hke a ghost in white, glides over the 
harbor bar. 

Onward she comes, straight on, to her fate of woe or weal ; 
Dauntless, staunch as a hero's soul, from her top-sail down to 
her keel. 

She hails from a distant land ; on her deck are the pioneers ; 
And the fog that wraps her 'round is the mist of near three 

hundred years. 
A look — and she fades away! There is nothing Imt sea and 

shore. 
'Twas a glimpse from the scenes of a vanished past ; — a vision, 

and nothing more. 
That was our ship, good neighbors, gathering here to-day, 
That was our ship, the " Mary and John," and that was 

Dorchester bay. 



84 CELEBRATION OF 

Those were our sires and mothers ; — women and men of God, 
Who had left behind them every inch of ground whicli their feet 

had trod. 
Here on this soil they landed ; found what their souls had sought; 
Here it was that they lived, and here that they planned and 

wrought. 
Churches and schools they reared, of the best that thej' could give 
S^imple and unadorned, like the lives that they had to live. 
Out of their dim ideals, and out of their " hope forlorn," — 
Out of their toils and tears our happier lives were born. 
Theirs was an empty cup which for us has been blessed and 

filled ; 
They saw in dreams the statelier walls which it has ])een ours to 

build. 
Shall we forget them, friends? Shall only their names be read 
On the old gray stones in the graveyard there, the sleeping place 

of the dead? 
Forget them? No, they are ours! They are part of our joy 

and pride. 
What matters it that centuries have passed since they lived and 

died? 
The answer comes with a thrill, although our voices be mute ; 
With one accord, we join our souls in a reverent salute. 
" All hail ! All hail ! " we cry, across the gulf of the years ; 
" Honor and love and praise ! All hail to the pioneers ! " 



After the speech making the prizes were awarded 
to the six school children who had written the best 
essays on the history of Dorchester by the Rev. W. 
H. Allbright. 

The pupils of the William E. Russell, Mather and 
Edward Everett schools had prepared essays, and 
those receiving prizes were Florence E. Turner, 
Arthur A. Donovan, Francis Grosscup, Frank Daly, 
Svea Brink and Louis Goler. 

The exercises were brought to a close by the 
singing of " America." 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. §5 



YACHT RACES 



Skippers, yacht owners and yaclitsnien in general, 
together with their friends, assemljled at the Savin 
Hill Yacht Club quarters and witnessed as fine a 
series of races as has ever been run on the course 
opposite the quarters of that organization. At ten 
A.M. sharp the whistle on the official boat, the tug 
"Cormorant," announced the start of the class A 
boats, and the racing continued until five P.M. 

The winners of the races, which were held under 
the management of tlie Savin Hill Yacht Club, 
the Dorchester Yacht Club and the Boston Yacht Club, 
are as follows : 

Class A. — ^ Yachts over 32 feet and under 45 feet, over-all 
length. — First, Sentinel; owner, G. A. Crawford; corrected 
time, 1 hour 3 minutes 27 seconds. Second, Dorchen ; owner, 
R. C. Goudy ; corrected time, 1 hour 7 minutes 44 seconds. 
Third, P^leanor ; owner, George F. Sawyer ; corrected time, 
1 hour 7 minutes 28 seconds. 

Class B. — Y'aclits over 21 feet and not over 32 feet, over- 
all length. — First, Goblin; owner, R. M. Lothrop; corrected 
time, 1 hour 5 minutes 11 seconds. Second, Dorcher ; owner, 
A. W. Finley ; corrected time, 1 hour 6 minutes 9 seconds. 
Third, Sintram ; owner, Harry B. Green ; corrected time, 
1 hour 7 minutes 45 seconds. 

Class D. — Cape cat boats, according to the Cape Cat Boat 
Association rules. — First, Arawak ; owner, H. C. Nickerson ; 
corrected time, 1 hour 31 minutes 51 seconds. Second, Almira; 
owner, J. M. Whittemore ; corrected time, 1 hour 35 minutes 34 
seconds. Third, Solitaire; owner, C. C. Colhns; corrected time, 
1 hour 39 minutes 34 seconds. 



86 CELEBRATION OF 

Class E. — For all yachts 21 feet and under, over-all length. — 
First, Teaser; owner, Joseph Vaux ; corrected time, 1 hour 15 
minutes 14 seconds. Second, ICmcrell ; owner, vS. Harding; cor- 
rected time, 1 hour l(i minutes 11 seconds. Third, Swastika; 
owner, G. H. Murray; corrected time, 1 liour 21 minutes 35 
seconds. 

The judges of the course were Frank W. Merrick, 
Commodore of the S. H. Y. C. ; Hjalmar Limdberg, 
Commodore of the D. Y, C. ; Louis M. Clark, Allan 
M. Davis, Charles F. White, Bernard Martin, Edward 
J. Wynde, William JS. Mace, Thomas F. MacManus, 
0. F. Davenport, Loring Sears, William H. Besarick 
and L. P. Sears. 



FOURTH DOKCHE.STER DAY 



WATER SPORTS 



The water sports held at Savin Hill heach proved 
a very interesting feature of the Dorchester Day pro- 
gram. One of the most interesting events of the 
sport, and which aroused tlie spectators to a great 
degree of enthusiasm, was the victory of little Rosa 
Pitonof of Dorchester in the fifty-yard race for girls 
under sixteen years of age. The smallest girl in the 
race, she won easily from the other four entrants. 
George Connelly won the first race of the morning, 
tliat of fifty yards for l^oys under sixteen, and Peter 
McHugh w^as second. In the quarter-mile race for 
l)oys over sixteen, William Pendergast came in first 
and John F. McGee second. The next race on the 
program was that for girls under sixteen for a 
distance of fifty yards, which was won by Rosa Pit- 
onof, with Catherine Berlo second. Buddy Ryan was 
first and William O'Brien second in the fifty -yard 
contest for boys over sixteen. The quarter-mile for 
girls over sixteen was won by Lillie Berlo, with her 
sister, Anna Berlo, second. 

The last contest on the program was that of 
diving, each boy making three dives. Adolp Pitonof 
won the first prize and Ernest McLaughlin second. 
The prizes offered were silver cups. After the races 
Peter S. McNally, who had charge of the events, 
gave an exhibition of trick and fancy swimming. 



88 CELEBRATION OF 



THE PARADE 



The parade was one of the leading features of 
the day. It was witnessed by more than 75,000 
persons. The decorations along the route were 
unusually fine and profuse, and more elal)orate than 
in many years. Many new devices were displayed, 
while from every flag-staff flags snapped in the 
breeze all day. Red, white and blue bunting was 
seen everywhere. 

In Peabody square the decorations were unusually 
fine and profuse. Engine Company No. 46 had 
completely covered their house with the tri-colored 
bunting. The decorations of the Ashmont Club 
were also noticeably attractive and striking. 

Among the prominent displays in the square were 
those of the Ashmont Real Estate Excbano-e, Ross 
Dry Goods Company, Stevens' upholstery establish- 
ment, the Hopkins news stand, J. A. Hart & Co.'s 
store, the real estate offices of J. W. Paul, 
C. E. Weymouth's dry goods establishment, E. W. 
Burleigh's real estate offices, the drug store of A. 
H. Tripp, E. P. Jacques' grocery store and the Casey 
shoe stores. 

STORES AND CLUBS GAY. 

Both the Columl)us House, Pearl and Pleasant 
streets, and the Dorchester Municipal Building were 
most tastefully decorated for the day. 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. gQ 

Every building in Codman square was decorated, 
those especially noticeable for tlie excellence of 
design being Thomas Tobin's news store, Garland & 
Sons' grocery and meat market, tlie drug store of E. 
W. Higgins, the Dorchester Gentlemeu's Driving Club- 
house, the drug store of G. E. Coleman, the Dorchester 
post-office and the grocery store of Morris Bros. 

On Melville avenue the houses of the Rev. Dr. 
Little and Benjamin O'Neill attracted much atten- 
tion by the decorative schemes with which they 
were adorned. Also noticealjle for the taste of the 
decorations were the Wheeler, Wallace, Field, Ter- 
hune, Watson and Sullivan estates. 

Waldeck street was ablaze with color, and llaos 
were flaunting everywhere. Prominent decorations 
were those of Charles F. Riordan, the Galvin estate, 
C. J. Flynn, the McDonald estate, W. J. Paul, the 
Whitmarsh drug store, Johnson's creamery and the 
Geneva Avenue market. 

On Harvard street, equallj' patriotic were the dis- 
plays and color scliemes. The O'Connell estate was 
prettily decorated, as were the drug establishment of 
Harrington & Teele, Fink's grocery, the Colonial 
pharmacy and Warden & Co.'s grocery. 

At Mayor Fitzgerald's home in Welles avenue, 
flags and bunting were so grouped and displayed as 
to make most effective and striking decorations. 
Conspicuous between two large American flags was a 
great Irish flag. 

At Upham's Corner, the buildings were hard to see 
for tlie rich and lavish display of flags and bunting. 



00 CELEBRATION OF 

Aside from the Columbus Club and Municipal Building 
and the Old Blake House in Edward Everett square, 
all of the other buildings were prettily adorned. 

Mayor Fitzgerald, accompanied by Councilman 
Charles T. Harding of the parade committee, called 
for Governor Guild at the State House snortly after 
twelve o'clock, and in an automobile went out to 
Dorchester. The Governor was taken to the Mayor's 
home in Welles avenue, where he was entertained 
until time to start for the exercises in the Old Blake 
House. At the conclusion of these the Governor 
was taken to Peabody square, where the parade 
formation took place. 

The procession formed on Talbot and Welles 
avenues, and started shortly after 2.30 o'clock, pass- 
ing over this route : Peabody square to Ashmont 
street, to Ocean street, to Welles avenue, to Wash- 
ington street, to Melville avenue, to Waldeck street, 
to Geneva avenue, to Bowdoin street, to Harvard 
street, to Franklin Field. Here the procession was 
reviewed by Chief Marshal Pray and his staff, after 
which the soldiers were dismissed. Then followed a 
band concert by the consolidated bands, and military 
evolutions by the Roxbury Horse Guards and the 
Lancers, and a gun drill by the Naval Brigade. 

There was a large crowd of spectators at the start- 
ing point, and the streets were well lined along the 
route, while enthusiastic grou})S applauded the march- 
ers liberally from decorated verandas, and wherever 
halts were made citizens were ready with refresh- 
ments, which were distributed along the line. 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 91 

The Rosteu of the Parade. 

Mounted Police. 
Chief Marslial, Lieutenant Dudley INI. Pray. 
Chief of Staff, Captain C. II. Keene, Fiftli Infantry. 
Staff — Lieutenant Charles Carter, Commissary ; Lieutenant 
Commander D. II. Sughrue, Surgeon ; Captain F. A. 
Walker, Captain Frank Chubbuck, General W. H. 11. 
Gary, Captain ¥j. F. O'Dowd, Lieutenant XL C. Connerais, 
Captain David Hanson, Lieutenant-Colonel .John Perrins, 
Jr., Lieutenant George A. Wardwell. 
First Company of Infantry, Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
Company, as Escort to Chief Marshal. 
Post 68 Band; G. A. Betteney, Leader. 
Eighty-Ninth Company, Coast Artillery. 
Seventh Company, Coast Artillery. 
Company A, United States Marines. 
Compan}' of Bluejackets from Warships. 
Poole's Jiand ; L. E. Poole, Leader. 
Signal Corps, M. V. JM., in Command of Lieutenant F. B. 

Edwards and Lieutenant R. E. Belcher. 
Aniliulauce Corps, M. \'. M., Lieutenant E. AV. Shinn Com- 
manding. 
Provisional Battalion, Fifth Infantry, M. Y. M. 
Company L, Sixth Infantry, M. \'. M., Captain G. W. Braxton, 
Lieutenants AV. B. Gould, W. S. Carpenter. 
Provisional Battalion, Coast Artillery, M. V. M. 
Roundy's Band ; A. B. Roundy, Leader. 
Battalion IMassachusetts Naval Brigade, Lieutenant D. H. Good- 
rich Commanding : Lieutenant E. R. Peale, Adjutant. 
Company A, Lieutenant F. G. Rol)inson. 
Company B, Lieutenant J. H. Marks. 
Company C, Lieutenant W. A. Lewis. 
Company I, Lieutenant J. B. Blood. 
Troop D, Roxbury Horse Guards (Mounted), Captain P>. A. 
Coliurn Commanding; Lieutenants C. A. Schmitz and W. L. 
vSwan. 
Troop A, National Lancers, Captain F. A. Robinson, Command- 
ing ; Lieutenants J. S. Barrows, D. Ai)pleton. 
Letter Carriers' Band. 
Post 6<S, G. A. R., W. B. Robinson Commanding. 
John Drum Camp, U. S. W. V. 



92 CELEBRATION OF 

Camp 26, U. S. W. V. 

Camp 6, U. S. W. V. 

Camp 4, U. S. W. V. 

Camp 8, U. S. W. V. 

Camp ;50, 8. of V. 

Commander A. J. Nott. 

Senior Vice-Commander E. Wallingford. 

Junior V^ice-Cominander A. L. Gardiner. 

Camp ol, S. of V. 

Camp 74, S. of V. 

Camp 9, S. of V. 

Marathon Company, Uniformed Ranlv, Knights of Pythias. 

Captain Robert Thurlow. 

Lieutenant H. 'J\ Pond. 

Dorchester Letter Carriers. 

Ninth Regiment Veteran Association. 

Captain J. C. Clark. 

Adjutant Fred Robinson. 

Boston School Cadets Drum Corps. 

Dorchester High Cadets, Major Crosby Commanding. 

Dudley School Cadets. 

Boys' Brigade Drum Corps. 

Provisional Regiment, U. B. B. A. 

Nepouset Company. 

Winthrop Company. 

Wollaston Company. 

Upham's Corner Company. 

Roxbury Compan3^ 

Milton Company. 

Mattapan Company. 

Romsey Street Company. 

Atlantic Company. 

Everett Company. 

Carriages containing invited guests. 

Engine Company No. 18. 

Hook and Ladder Company No. 23. 

Ambulances. 

While the evokitions were going on Chief Marshal 
Pray was entertaining his staff and guests at luncheon 
at Hendrie's, directly opposite the field. 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY, 



ATHLETIC GAMES 



Fully three thousand people gathered at the town 
field at Field's Corner to see the athletic events. At 
2.30 P.M. the sports started with the 100-yard dash, 
which included forty-five entries, the race being run 
off in heats. The winners and time of the different 
races are as follows : 

100-yard dash: winner's time, lOi seconds — H. Wade, 
C. G. A., first; Fred Burns, Boston Latin School, second. 

440-yard run: winner's time, ^7 seconds — P. D. Fogg, Dor- 
cliester Higli, first; F. E. Miles, C. Y. M.C.A., second. 

One-mile run: winner's time, 4 minutes oOi seconds — J.J. 
Sullivan, Catholic Y. M. C. A., first ; C. Anderson, Swedish G. C, 
second. 

880-yard run : winner's time, 2 minutes 12| seconds — F. P. 
Sheehan, first; Samuel L. Bryant, N. Y. M. C. A., second. 

Team race : Dorchester High vs. Roxlniry High ; won by Dor- 
chester High. 

Team race hy two teams from the Columbia road gymnasium : 
won l)y team cai)fained l)y William ()"Brien. 

100-yard dash for boys over fifteen years: A. W. Davidson, 
first; J. F. Cullen, second. 

50-yard dash for boys under fifteen years : Louis Neiderbeiger, 
first; William Ormsby, second. 

oO-yard dash for girls under fifteen years : Ethel Harwood, 
first; Mary Mahan, second. 

220-yard dash for boys under fifteen years : Louis Neider- 
berger, first; Harold Kyan, second. 

220-yard dash for girls under fifteen years : P'.thel Harwood, 
first; Alice O'Keefe, second. 

Running high jump: A. L. Ross, C.G. A., first, 6 feet i inch; 
W. Oesting, second, 5 feet Hi inches. 



94 CELEBRATION OF 

The games were run off luicler the supervision of 
Councilman William S. Bramhall, Chairman of the 
Committee of Arrangements, and the following officials 
supervised the field events : Referee, Peter F. Kelley; 
Timers, William O'Brien, James L. Walsh, M. R. 
Smith and Frank X. McGrath ; Judges, George 
De Cost, Oscar Pearson, Thomas J. Riley, Thomas 
L. Owen and Frank Pendergast ; Inspectors, James 
J. Dolan, John J. Lalley, Frank MacDonnell and 
D. J. Murphy ; Clerk of Course, John J. Haverty ; 
Assistant Clerk of Course, William Hines ; Scorer, T. F. 
Conrick ; Starter, Joseph MacNamara ; Announcer, 
William Smith ; Awarder of Prizes, Councilman 
William S. Bramhall ; Manager, John A. Lane. 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 95 



HISTORIC SPOTS LOCATED 



The Dorchester Historical Society located man}^ 
historic spots, which were suital)ly marked by Edward 
W. McGleneii, City Registrar. During Old Home 
Week they were visited by many people from all parts 
of the country. The inscriptions were as follows : 

[Cottage street, near Town Meeting square.] 

FIRST MEETING HOUSE. 

(1631-164G.) 

Near this spot the first meeting house was erected in 16.31, 
used for town meetings and the first scliool. The second meeting 
house, lC)-46-167<s, stood on site close by. 



[East Cotta(iE street, near Dorchester avenue.] 

Near this spot stood the liome of Major-General Humphrey 
Atherton, 1635-1661. 



[Edward P]verett square.] 

On this site stood the mansion of Robert Oliver, erected 
in 1745 ; afterwards the residence of his son, Thomas Oliver, 
Lieutenant-Governor. Here Edward Everett was born, April 
11, 1794. 



[Boston street.] 

This marks the location of the American Lines extending from 
the South Bay to the Old Harbor, occupied by the right wing of 
Washington's army during the siege of Boston, 1775-1776. 



96 CELEBRATION OF ' 

[CoRNEK Savin Hill avenue and Pleasant street.] 

Here was the home of Israel Stoughlon, 1630-1645; also 
of his SOD, Gov. William Stoughton, 1631-1701 ; and of his 
nephew, Lieutenant-Governor William Tailor, 1702-1732. 



[Site of the First Fort, 1634.] 

SAVIN HILL. 

"The 6th of January, Mooneday 1633. It is ordered that 
there shall be a fort made upon the Rocke above Mr. Johnsons." 



[Savin Hill.] 

Site of two buildings used as barracks by Washington's soldiers 
during the siege of Boston, 1775-1776 ; one still standing. 



[Savin Hill avenue.] 

Near this spot was built the home of Roger Ludlow, the first 
Deputy-Governor of Massachusetts. 



[Savin Hill avenue.] 

During the war of 1812, entrenchments were constructed 
around the southeast side of "Old Hill" on the bluff near the 
water side. The magazine was erected near this place. Here 
the Indians dwelt before the white man came. 



BRIDGE AT LOWER MILLS. 

Here, on the banks of the Neponset, Israel Stoughton built the 
first grist mill in New England in 1633; the first powder mill 
was erected in 1675; the first paper mill in 1728; and the first 
chocolate mill in 1765. 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY 



FIREWORKS DISPLAY 



On Franklin Field over 1U,00() people gathered to 
witness the display of fireworks, which was far more 
successfnl than the display last year. The illumina- 
tion of the words " Dorchester, June 8th," in a 
large arch, won great applause from those on the 
field, as did also a " Teddy Bear, " which performed 
amusing stunts in the air. 

From the balconies of the Hendrie Casino, Mayor 
J(jhn F. Fitzgerald and a specially invited party of 
four hundred saw the great display, which w^as the 
finest ever given on a Dorchester Day. 

The Mayor was accompanied by his wife and 
children, while in the party were Aldermen Bell, Bald- 
win, Whelton and Finigan, Councilmen Harding, Cos- 
tello. Green, Bramhall and Clark, Mayor's Secretary 
Richard F. Field, Congressman Joseph F. O'Connell, 
Building Commissioner Charles Logue, Superintendent 
of Bridges Patrick F. McDonald, Superintendent of 
Streets James H. Doyle and Superintendent of Public 
Buildings James F. Nolan. 

At eight o'clock Edward Everett square was thronged 
with people to hear the concert given l)y the Boston 
Municipal Band from a large stand built in the 
center of the square. 



98 CELEBRATION OF 

At eight o'clock there was a promenade concert at 
the Savm Hill Yacht Clnb, which was attended by all 
the principal residents of Savin Hill. 

The closing feature of the day was the reception 
and banquet given by the Dorchester Historical 
Society in the Municipal Building on Columbia road. 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 99 



BANQUET 



In the evening, the Historical Society held a re- 
ception and ])anquet in the Municipal Building on 
(Johunljia road. 

At 6.30 the Receiving Committee, Richard C. 
Humphreys, President ; James H. Stark, Chairman ; 
the Rev. William H. Allbright, D.D., James F. AVat- 
tles, A. F. Delano, the Rev. Eugene R. Shippen and 
James L. Miller, met the guests of the occasion in the 
library of the spacious building, and at seven o'clock 
tlie two hundred present assembled in the gymnasium, 
which had been converted into a dining hall. 

The speechmaking began at eight o'clock, and Presi- 
dent Humphreys acted as toastmaster. In opening 
the speeches, he said : 

Lora 



100 CELEBKATION OF 



ADDRESS 

By President of the Dorchester Historical 
Society 



Gentlemen, — As President of the Dorchester His- 
torical Societ}', it becomes my duty to call 3'ou to 
order, not that I have noticed any disorder, but to 
call your attention to what I trust will not only be 
interesting, but instructive as well. Let us "mix 
reason with pleasure and wisdom with mirth." 

Perhaps some of you may have noticed that 1 
looked a little sober during the supper. It was 
because I knew I would be expected to make a 
speech after the meal. I have been comparing my 
position to-night with that of Daniel in tlie lion's 
den. In a celebrated picture Daniel is made to look 
happy in the presence of the wild beasts. A young 
man, after examining the picture, asked the artist 
why he had painted Daniel with such a smiling 
countenance and apparently so happy. The artist 
replied, " That is because he knows he will not have 
to make a speech after the meal." Here I am in 
the presence of all these lions. 

As I look over this audience and see the renowned 
orators and eloquent divines, I have magnified my 
office as I recall a quotation from Shakespeare, for I 
can say with the Bishop of Carlisle, in " Richard II.," 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 101 

"And who sits here who is not Richard's subject?" 
Yes, this is the chance of my life, for I can lord it 
over you to my heart's content. A presiding officer's 
duty is to the whole company, and not to the indi- 
vidual. If I see a person at the table whom I know 
the audience would like to hear, I shall call him, 
even though he does not wish to speak. Now, you 
ministers, doctors and professors have enjoyed the 
physical feast, and we are now to enjoy " the feast 
of reason and the flow of soul." 

But, friends, I would not be true to the position I 
hold if I did not sound the keynote of this after- 
glow of the banquet by calling your attention to the 
object for which the Dorchester Historical Society 
was organized. We wish to make this gathering to- 
night educational, to inspire in your hearts a love 
for " Good old Dorchester," and a determination to 
make the rising generation realize what an important 
part it took in moulding and developing the beginning 
of New England. Let us do honor to the memory 
of John White, the founder of Dorchester — yes, the 
founder of Massachusetts — by seeing to it that every 
boy and girl in our community knows who he was 
and what he did. I am proud of being one of a few 
who caused to be placed in St. Peter's Church in old 
Dorchester, England, where John White's body lies, 
a tablet stating the fact that he is buried there, and 
I am proud to have joined with several whom I see 
before me in having placed in our Dorchester High 
School some of the tessellated pavement of Roman 
origin from Dorchester, England. 



102 CELEBRATION OF 

I thank God for the Puritanism of Dorchester, and 
let us see to it that in the abolition of Puritanical 
laws and the growth of liberalism we do not go too 
far and our liberty become license. There is little 
danger to-day of the rising generation becoming too 
Puritanical, but there is danger that the influence of the 
lives of Governor Winthrop and the Mathers be lost. 
Let us throw the mantle of charity over their faults 
and remember their virtues. Let us do our part to 
make the " Dorchester spirit " known throughout New 
England as the spirit of reverence for all that is good 
in the past, respect and love for those Ijrave souls 
who in the early settlement of Dorchester laid down 
their lives for us, and set an example of self-sacrifice 
and devotion to what they felt to be the will of God. 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 103 



ADDRESS 

By the Rev. Peter ronan 



The first speaker introduced by President Hum- 
phreys was the Rev. Peter Ronan, pastor of St. 
Peter's Church, Meeting House Hill. The venerable 
clergyman was warmly applauded as he arose to 
speak. He took for a topic " The First Settlers of 
Dorchester." As a sort of })reface to his remarks, 
he said that he considered the celebration the best 
Dorchester Day up to the present time. He con- 
sidered Dorchester a district of homes, and these 
homes, he said, were the homes of citizens who are 
second to none in loyalty, good citizenship and 
perseverance. He admitted that there was much 
poverty in tlie district, but claimed that the wealth 
of the citizens of Dorchester strikes a very high 
average even for an American community. 

He detailed at some length the history of the 
first settlers of Dorchester, telling in a pleasing 
manner of the crude homes built by them, and as 
time passed on how they improved their dwellings 
by building- them of the sturdy oak. As a result of 
their using such material, many of their old homes 
are standing to-day, he said, and he named a num- 
ber of famous old-time dwellings which are located 
in the district. 



104 CELEBRATION OF 

He recited in a most entertaining way the inci- 
dents connected with the building of the first churcli 
in Dorchester at the corner of Pleasant and East 
Cottage streets, and told of how it was built of logs, 
was twelve feet high, and that there were military 
stores in it and guns on the roof. vSaid he, •' His 
Satanic majesty must have trembled when the first 
church in Dorchester got going." [Laughter.] He 
told how the first stove ever to be introduced into 
a church was placed in the local churches in 1820, 
and of the vigorous protests of several staunch 
members, which created a deal of amusement among 
his audience. He related how the first settlers met 
with many trials ; how man to man they fought 
and died that they might overcome these obstacles, 
which they so successfully did. " We should remem- 
ber the patience and fortitude of the first settlers hi 
our troubles," said the speaker. " They should help 
us in overcoming our perplexities and teach us the 
lesson of patience, which means victory over every 
trouble." 

In closing his remarks, Father Ronan strongly ad- 
vocated the necessity of a park at Savin Hill. " We 
must have the park at once," he said. He told of how 
three-apartment houses are being built all over the 
district, and said that we did not want such things 
to mar the spot where the first settlers of the now 
great district landed. Furthermore, he declared, the 
park should not only be made at once, but it should 
also be amply protected and cared for by the city. 

Father Ronan' s remarks were heartily applauded. 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 105 

Tlie Hon. Guj A. Hani, Assistant United States 
District Attorney, was the orator of the evening, and 
his address was one of the treats of the day. He 
spoke at some length n])on the first settlers, and his 
address was received with a tremendons ontbnrst of 
enthusiasm. 



106 CELEBRATION OF 



ADDRESS 

By the Hon. Guy A. Ham 



At this period of the year we celebrate many an- 
niversaries that are commemorative of great events 
in American history ; ]jut these anniversaries, for the 
most part, commemorate great miUtary conflicts in 
which other generations of Americans have engaged. 

It is highly fitting, therefore, that at this time, 
the citizens of Dorchester shonld set apart a day in 
memory of tlie peaceful settlement of this commu- 
nity, that we may have an opportunity, by gather- 
ing together on occasions of this description, to do 
honor to the achievements of those who planted the 
seed from which sprung the institutions which have 
been, in large measure, responsible for the success of 
the American government. 

As we reflect upon the character of the men and 
women who first settled in this community, we are 
especially impressed witli their high devotion to prin- 
ciple, and this characteristic was found existing, 
also, among the early citizens of the colony and 
their descendants, who, later, established the American 
Republic. 

Other nations, it is true, have produced citizens 
that have undergone heroic self-sacrifice for the sake 
of their country, but few of them have been actu- 



FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 107 

ated by that liigli resolve and unselfish devotion to 
principle that inspired the first settlers of America. 

It is true that, as we peruse, tlie history of ancient 
Greece, we note numerous instances of magnificent 
sacrifice on the part of their people, but they were 
urged to that sacrifice, for the most part, to save 
the cities of Greece from the invaders that threat- 
ened their existence. In the annals of the old Roman 
empire we read many stories of patriotic sacrifice on 
the part of thousands of hei'oie Romans, but they 
were actuated by the desire to place the imperial 
eagle of Rome over lands that had hitherto refused 
to acknowledge their dominion. 

Throughout the middle ages we find abundant 
evidence of a willingness to give up life and every- 
thing that man liolds dear, when they heard the 
call of their country, but too frequently they were 
inspired to undergo that sacrifice because of religious 
bigotry or from some mistaken sense of chivalric 
honor. Not until we cross the broad bosom of the 
Atlantic and delve into the history of the American 
colonies do we find an entire race or people actuated 
by principles that had hitherto failed of expression 
in the conflicts undertaken by other people. The 
early colonists and the fathers of the Revolution, all 
of those that participated in the early struggles that 
made possible the existence of the American Republic, 
were actuated by a high devotion to principle — the 
principle that all men should be equal before the 
law ; and to that end they forsook the comforts 
that a life of ease held out before them, thrust aside 



108 CELEBRATION OF 

ambition, and as occasion demanded sacrificed life 
itself to the end that they mioht make, possible a 
form of government where the principles in which 
they believed might find expression. 

While the struggles in which they engaged have 
been ended, and the problems that confront them 
have been solved, there have arisen new problems 
which to-day demand solution. The scene, however, 
has been transferred from the field of battle to the 
halls of legislation. In the days to come the era 
through which we are now passing will undoubt- 
edly be known as the era of law enactment and law 
enforcement. 

Inventions like the steam and electric roads, the 
telegraph and telephone, the growth of great centres 
of population that are constantly demanding easier 
and more economical sources of supply, the develop- 
ment of mines and the factory system, have all revo- 
lutionized the conduct of industrial enterprise. The 
capital and effort of single individuals was not suffi- 
cient to carry on these undertakings with complete 
success. It required a combination of effort and a 
combination of capital. As time advanced there 
came a demand for a greater economy in the main- 
tenance and administration of these combinations, 
and as a result we have witnessed a consolidation 
of combinations. 

The practices of these combinations were revealed 
to the public eye as the years passed on, and it was 
discovered that through the influence that they 
exerted over the transportation facilities of the land 




COMMITTEE OF THE DORCHESTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



FOURTH DORCIIESTKK DAY. IQO 

it was possible not only for them to ruin individual 
competitors, but to affect the prosperity of entire 
communities as well. To prevent abuses of this 
description, to render exact justice to these combina- 
tions, to give them the widest opportunity to pro- 
mote their enterprises in a manner consistent with 
good morals and sound public policy, to give to the 
humblest citizen an opportunity to display his talents 
and achieve success, is the aim and scope of the 
legislation now being demanded on every hand. In 
other words, while other generations of Americans 
solve the question of the equality of all men before 
the law, we are endeavoring to discover how we 
may secure e(|uality of opportunity for all men under 
the law. 

A celebration of this description is useful in so 
fai- as it affords us an ojjportunity to study the 
nobler elements of character in the men and women 
that first settled in this community, and in so fai- as 
we endeavor to follow their example and with high- 
minded motives strive to lal)or for the common 
weal. The passage of time brings with it changed 
conditions that demand the Ijest thought and atten- 
tion of the citizens of to-day. We look behind us 
and behold a magniiicent record of achievement on 
the part of other generations of Americans. It 
should be our ambition to add sometliing to their 
record that may make this age worthy of remem- 
brance. 

I shall never forget how that lesson was impressed 
upon my mind by a little incident that occurred a 



110 CELEBRATION OF 

few years ago while on a vacation in the State of 
Maine. One Saturday evening I climbed a hill, near 
the farmhouse where I was staying, for the purpose 
of viewing the landscape. On one side I could see 
the White Mountains bathed in the golden light of 
a magnificent sunset. Looking toward the east I 
could see the dim outline of the ocean, where at 
that hour so many thousands were in search of 
health and pleasure. At the foot of the hill 
stretched out the farms and the woodlands, every- 
thing peaceful about them as if awaiting the 
approach of the Holy Sabbath. On the right hand 
I beheld the ridge where the ancestors of my father 
had settled long years before, coming into what was 
then a wooded wilderness for the purpose of build- 
ino; homes. Before me were the farms where the 
ancestors of my mother had labored with fidelity, 
overcoming the obstacles placed in their way by 
nature, that they might provide suitably for them- 
selves and families. As I looked out upon that 
scene, as I looked at the headstones that marked 
the places where many of them were buried in the 
midst of the scenes of their life labor, as I noted 
how the results of their labor had lasted after they 
had gone, as I reflected upon the joys and sorrows 
that they had experienced as they attempted to 
better the condition of those dependent on them, 
there rushed to my mind in that solemn moment 
the thought that I, as one of their descendants, 
was under a serious obligation to prove worthy of 
their labors and try to add something to the work 
of those who had gone before. 



FOTTRTH DORCHESTER DAY. , HI 

As a people we stand on the eminence of time, 
and gazing down through the centuries that have 
passed we behold a magnificent record of wonderful 
achievement on the part of other generations of 
Americans. We should not rest content with ex- 
pressions of admiration for what the}^ have done, 
but should labor as did they to uphold the right 
and defeat the wrong. 

Too much cannot be said in praise of those two 
institutions, the town meeting and the public school, 
that the early settlers of Dorchester established, in- 
stitutions that have exerted a profound effect upon 
American history. May we not say of those insti- 
tutions as Macaulay said of the civilization of ancient 
Greece : " When civilization shall have fixed her 
abode in some distant continent, when the sceptre of 
powder shall have been wrested from the American 
people, when travellers from some distant shore shall 
visit our land and hear savage nations chanting their 
hymns over our fallen temples and shall labor in 
vain to decipher the names of our proudest chieftains 
on some mouldering pedestal, still the memory of 
those institutions will survive fresh in immortal 
youth, eternal and immutable as the principle from 
which they derived their origin." 

To the early settlers of Dorchester we dedicate 
this day, a memorial to the past, an inspiration to 
the present and a prophecy of the possibilities of the 
future. 



Jolm A. Fowle, Secretary of the Dorchester His- 
torical Society, was the next speaker, and he was 



112 CELEBRATION OF FOURTH DORCHESTER DAY. 

followed by Mrs. Julia K. Dyer. The Rev. George L. 
Paine, rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, was 
next called upon, and he delivered a stirring address 
on patriotism. 

The Rev. Clifton D. Gray, Ph.D., pastor of the 
Stoiighton Street Baptist Church, spoke briefly, as did 
Mr. Patrick F. McDonald, who was the last speaker of 
the evening. After a few remarks by President 
Humphreys, the exercises were closed. 

The speakers dwelt upon the matter of saving 
Savin Hill as a park to connnemorate the first 
settlers of Dorchester, and lauded the history of this 
beautiful suburb of Boston. 



The banquet brought Dorchester's great celebration 
to a close. The weather had been ideal, and the 
whole program was carried out completely without 
any accident or omission, and it was the universal 
opinion that Dorchester Day had come to stay. 



INDEX 

TO 

DORCHESTER DAY CELEBRATIONS 



INDEX 



Vac 



Algonquin tribes former inliabitants -^ ' 

Allbright, Mary E., poem by 83, 84 

Rev. W. n., address of "78 

American lines during siege of Boston, location of 95 

'' Arbella," arrival of ■^•* 

Atherton, Major-General Humphrey, location of home of 95 

Athletic games: 

On Fourth Dorchester Day 9?>, 94 

On Second Dorchester Day 27 

Banquet: 

Address by Guy Ham 10^ 

Address by President of the Dorchester Historical Society ... 100 

Address by Rev. Peter Ronan 103 

Celebration of Fourth Dorchester Day 99 

qq 
Committee of same 

Baseball games, Third Dorchester Day. 51 

Bell, Alderman Tilton S., Chairman of City Committee 56 

Blake, Dr. Clarence J., and .John U., descendants of James Blake. 7 

Blake House: 

One of oldest in country '^'* 

Replacing old Dorchester Milestone at • 58 

Starting point of parade ^'^ 

Brewer, Daniel Chauncey, oration of ■ • • • • '^ 

Butterworth, Hezekiah, poem by -■* 

Clap, Roger, His narrative 1'^ 

De Normandie, Rev. James, address of •' 

Dorchester: 

Declares independence 

Description of Town of '^^ 

'' Dorchester Pioneers," by Mary C. Allbright «3, 84 

, 1 • 42 

First free school in 

First town meetmg in 

(Jentlemen's Driving Club race 50, 51 

Its part in Indian Wars 

Part taken in Rebellion '^^ 

Two Hundred Seventy-fourth Anniversary of 5 

Dorchester Day: 

First celebration of 

Fourth celebration of 

Second celebration of ^'^ 

o-i 

Third celebration of 

Dorchester Historical Society: 

Incorporated '^ 

Program of Fourth Dorchester Day celebration 55, 58 



116 IXDEX. 

Pnge 

Eells, John, first settler .... 17 

Rev. James, oration of 24 

Essayists, prizes given to 84 

Everett, Edvv^ard: 

Mansion of 6 

Oration of 18 

Fireworks display CT 

Fitzgerald, Mayor John F. : 

Address by, on Third Dorchester Day 40 

Address of, at resetting of old Milestone 63 

Display of fireworks by 81 

Entertains Governor Guild at his residence 90 

Grants appropriation for Fourth Dorchester Day 55 

Guild, Gov. Curtis, Jr., address of 61 

Ilam, Guy A 12 

Address of 1!) 

Address of, at banquet 106 

Hawkins', Mr., great guns are mounted at 17 

High School, Roman pavement at 48, 60 

Historic spots located 95 

Humphreys, Richard C: 

Address at banquet of Dorchester Historical Society 100 

Address of welcome 24 

Address on Fourth Dorchester Day 59 

Address on Third Dorchester Day 35 

Opening address on First Dorchester Day 13 

President Dorchester Historical Society 12 

Ludlow, Roger : 

First Deputy Governor 16 

Site of home 96 

MacCurdy, Brenton II., song by 26 

" Mary and John " : 

Arrives at Nantasket 71 

Arrives with first settlers 15 

Leaves Plymouth 70 

Poem 24 

Massachusetts Company 17 

May, John J., former president of Dorchester Historical Society. 13 

Meeting House, location of 95 

Nantasket Point, arrival of " Mary and John "at 39 

New England Guards, camped at Savin Hill 17 

Old Hill 11 

Oliver, Thomas : 

Location of residence of 95 

Royal Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts 6 

Parade : 

Roster of Fourth Dorchester Day 91, 92 

Roster of Third Dorchester Day 33 

Second Dorchester Day 23 



INDEX. 117 

Program : Pa^g 
Of City Committee of Fourth Dorchester Day Celebration. . . 56, 57 

Of Dorchester Historical Society f,^ 

Third Dorchester Day 32 

Quincy, Josiah, oration of, on Third Dorchester Day 37 

Resolve, requesting city to purchase Savin Hill 49 

Rock Hill is fortified J5 

Rocky Hill, original name j 1 

Rouan, Rev. Peter 12 

Address at banquet 103 

Address of I9 

Sailing Regatta, on Second Dorcliester Day 26 

Savin Hill : 

Celebration at, on Fourth Anniversary 68 

Entrenchments constructed at. during War of 1812 96 

Order for building first fort at <J6 

Origin of name IS 

Selected for a park ]g^ 19 

Site of home of Roger Ludlow 9(i 

Site of two buildings used as barracks during siege of Boston. 96 

Yacht Club, promenade concert at 98 

Sliippen, Rev. Eugene R. : 

Address of 14 

Address of, on Fourth Dorchester Day Celebration 82 

Historical address 24 

Pastor of First Parish Church in Dorcliester 12 

Recitation of " Dorchester Pioneers ''. . . 83 

Stark, James II. : 

Address on Milestones 65 

Founder of Dorchester Day 7 

Incorporates Dorchester Historical Society 5 

Oration of, on First Dorchester Day 15 

Stoughton, Col. Israel : 

Built first grist mill in New England 96 

Leading man of Colony 40 

Location of house 96 

Tailor, Lieut.-Gov. William, location of home 96 

Torchlight and bontire, on Second Dorchester Day 27 

Town Meeting, order for first 75 

Water sports 87 

White, Rev. John, obtains Charter 37 

Whitmore, William H., founder of Dorchester Historical Society. 5 

Winthrop, Governor, refers to Roger Ludlow 16 

Yacht race : 

Fourth Dorchester Day 85 

Third Dorchester Day 51 



MAY 4 iaOb 



m. 



